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So, once again I found myself in a position to go to NOVA (my previous report from 2013 is at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/549198.page ). This time, some friends and I had planned a holiday, spending a week in California and a week in New York. The middle weekend was Labor Day weekend, so I left my friends to stay in LA for another few days and jetted across to DC.

I took Chaos Space Marines, secure in the knowledge that I'd do even worse than last time, but they're the army I've been building this year, so they were coming. I didn't get much chance to test the list because I was still building a lot it (see the P&M Log at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/426461.page ). I finished just in time for a small Escalation tournament in London with a variant. So, I finally got to try it out for the first time at Frontline Gaming in Martinez, CA against Reecius. He posted it as a video battle report here:




So, a week after my crushing defeat at the hands of Reece's Ogrynstar, I arrive in DC. Here goes....


The Army

[img width='500']http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SN330Q54PvA/VASGT806sVI/AAAAAAAAGqA/z63qrvCaSQE/s1600/IMG_9834.JPG[/img]
(Image stolen from Evan S' blog at ftgtgaming.blogspot.com since I forgot to take a photo!)

* Be'lakor
* 10 Cultists (Autoguns, Hvy Stubber)
* 10 Cultists (Autoguns, Hvy Stubber)
* 10 Cultists (Flamer)
* 10 Cultists
* Heldrake (Baleflamer)
* Heldrake (Baleflamer)
* 2 Obliterators (Mark of Nurgle)
* 2 Obliterators (Mark of Nurgle)
* 1 Obliterator (Mark of Nurgle)
* Helfist Murderpack (5 Multimeltas, 3 Powerfists, 1 Thunderhammer, 1 Power Scourge, 2 Hvy Flamers)


Game 1
CSM vs Necrons (Charvel Tosov)

So, first game was Objective-based against Necrons. I felt reasonably confident. His list was two Overlords on Barges, three squads of Wraiths, two squads of Warriors in Arks and a couple of Annihilation Barges. The opening salvos went well, crippling the odd barge, though Be'lakor failed to get invsibling anyone, but the real stars were the Helbrutes themselves, who pretty much ate through all the Wraiths. Handily, the whip coils on the wraiths meant that every time the Helbrutes charged, there was one survivor who kept the Helbrutes from being fired on in the next turn. However, Be'lakor was quickly eaten by Mindshackle Scarabs and his resurrecting Overlords means that he won the game by a point. Good game, though!







Game 2
CSM vs Knights/GK (Martin Bagley)

This was a much worse matchup for me, against quite a fiddly list. One Adamantium Lance of three Knights, supported by Coteaz and two squads of only Psykers (all taking Telepathy) in two GK Deep Striking Landraiders!! The DS Land Raiders weren't the scariest thing, but Be'lakor couldn't really do much against the Knights, and while the Helbrutes destroyed the first one to charge them in close combat, the ensuing explosion took out most of the squad! I was left with a load of cultists attempting to grab objectives while most of his army stomped around the board. Massive loss to me, against a tricksy army that (with the new GK Codex out) is now unusable.






We then stopped for lunch and everyone arranged their armies for judgement. Here's some of the cool ones...










I really wanted to play this Angry Marines army, but no such luck...




And this was a really cool Squat army, but the player was fielding the whole thing as Ultramarines (even the flak armour and lasgun armed guys) which I thought was pushing 'counts-as' a bit!




Game 3
CSM vs Tyranids (Evan Slagle)

So, third game was a scary one against Evan's FMC Tyranids. Evan is a regular poster on ToF, so knows what he's doing, and had two Flyrants, two Hive Crones, Venomthropes, Zoanthropes, lots of gribblies and a Mawloc thingy. I ran into the usual thing I run into against this army - I have no idea what any of them do! Most of the big targets I found very difficult to take down since I don't have a lot of anti-flyer, and Be'lakor died again (after taking out the Zoanthropes and Venomthrope)! My cultists killed his big Mawloc, and my Helbrutes drew most of the fire and survived the entire game, which meant that we ended up drawing on both primary and secondary! However, Evan had destroyed a lot more of my army and got the win in the end. Fun game though - see Evan's report at http://ftgtgaming.blogspot.com/2014/09/nova-in-review.html#more - I really need to get to know my Tyranids better!!






Game 4
CSM vs Dark Angels/GK (Edward Ennett)

Fourth game rolled up against a Dark Angels static gun line army with added Inquisitors and psyker units, along with a big Fortification thing with lots of Skyfirey guns, and a Bolter Banner hidden inside it. All the units were deployed, with two groups of empty Razorbacks ready to zoom into the corners to grab objectives. Generally, this went well. I stayed away from his home base and took out the two groups of Objective-grabbers with Multimeltas, Be'lakor and Obliterators. The Heldrakes finally got to use their Baleflamers on some marines, but some random bit of kit gave them all a 4++ so it wasn't maybe as good as it could have been. I'd been bumped down a bit, and my opponent was fine, but there was a fair bit of looking up of rules and questioning things, so although this was my first big win, it wasn't most fun game. Oh, and Be'lakor got bolstered to death. Again.






Game 5
CSM vs Necron Flying Circus (Eric Downey)

So, one of the downsides of winning your fourth game at NOVA is that it pushes you up into a higher bracket. After my first three losses, I was heading for the lowest bracket, where I probably would have had a good chance against all the Space Wolves and fun crazy armies. However, my big win against the DA meant that I was pushed up a couple of brackets, and ended up against a Necron Flying Bakery! Five Night Scythes, a Doom Scythe and some Annihilation Barges on a Hammer and Anvil deployment. I kinda lost this one at the start. I tried to push the brutes forward to limit the amount of flyers that could bring their guns to bear, but the usual issues of failed invisibility and Be'lakors fragility when being shot by high-rate of fire weapons surfaced, and I was reduced to trying to strafe flyers every turn with Heldrakes. Another loss!






Game 6
CSM vs Tyranid Skyblight (Richard Jones)

This was a fun game, against a reasonably similar army to earlier. Two flyrants, two Hive Crones, Venomthropes, this time with some Carnifexes and a Skyblight formation load of Gargoyles. I didn't see much of the Skyblight terror, since the Gargoyles mostly kept to the back to claim objectives, so I spend my game trying to down flying creatures again! This time I was more successful, but it still usually took a turn's worth of fire, psychics and vector strikes to try and get one of the beasties on the floor where they could be assaulted, and despite Belakor taking out the venomthropes, and the cultists doing a great job of killing a Hive Crone by weight of fire, I didn't have enough left at the end of the game to hold objectives! Fifth loss of six games!







So, another fun time drinking and gaming, but not very successful in tournament terms! After six games of being defeated, I was a bit Warhammered out so I spent my Sunday attending airbrushing classes, doing bait of tourism, and going through my goody bag. Also, I won a big bag of magnets in the lemonade raffle - so there was an advantage to losing so many games!

Lessons learned: If you're going to lose the first four games, do it properly. Also, don't bring a Murderpack to a tournament. Also, hide Be'lakor a bit more!!

Ahh, poor Belekor!

Anyway, hope you had fun Ian, it was great chatting and sharing a drink on Sunday night with you and Team Zero Comp.

Thanks for the read, poor poor Belekor.

Glad you enjoyed yourself and it was a pleasure meeting you!

So murderpack = bad idea?
What about the DS helbrutes formation?

Love your Heldrakes, would you mind sharing how you did them? [or linking to your WIP thread]. Sorry to hear you lost 5 out of 6, but seeing as you went up against some very competitive lists you shouldn't feel too bad. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Are those hell drakes the hell blade fliers?

Nice to meet you sir, hopefully you had a good time!

ArbitorIan once again it was great to see you at NOVA again.. hopefully see you next year and we get a matchup

Zagman wrote:Ahh, poor Belekor! Anyway, hope you had fun Ian, it was great chatting and sharing a drink on Sunday night with you and Team Zero Comp. Thanks for the read, poor poor Belekor.

iGuy91 wrote:Nice to meet you sir, hopefully you had a good time!

zedsdead wrote:ArbitorIan once again it was great to see you at NOVA again.. hopefully see you next year and we get a matchup

Great meeting you guys too - always good to put faces to (online fake) names!!

Reecius wrote:Glad you enjoyed yourself and it was a pleasure meeting you!

Pleasure meeting you too, sir, and thanks for the hospitality in Martinez!

tyrannosaurus wrote:Love your Heldrakes, would you mind sharing how you did them?

Nocturus wrote:Are those hell drakes the hell blade fliers?

The P&M thread is at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/426461.page - Page 4 has the conversions. Yes, they're based on FW Hell Blades. I then recast the forward vanes and built some magnetised extra wings using old Leman Russ wheels. The wing sections fit into that notch that already exists in the Hell Blade's profile.

jackyratos wrote:So murderpack = bad idea?
What about the DS helbrutes formation?

Haven't tried the Mayhem Pack but it does look like fun! I think the biggest problem they had was speed and my tendency to run Belakor around too much and get him killed. In a few games they really earned their points, but then in a few others they were useless. I think in an alternate list, I'd have some sort of cheap psychic battery unit and maybe a second DP, so that the second guy can do the bouncing around and killing things while Belakor hides away casting invisibility.

Thank you very much for sharing your Nova experience. Despite your performance you seemed to have had a great time which ultimately is the most important thing.

I tried the Mayemh pack yesterday: arrive T2 but were immobilised T3 and 4 (I rolled both 1 on the chart). So they destroyed a predator, did a few glances on LR and dreadnoughts, finishing them at the end of the game but so much late after my opponent killed everything else. IWND = 1 HP.

I don't think it is reliable because of the roll on
the furious chart can complety ruined a plan.

Helcut can be fun, next time.

I cracked up at the Angry Marines. Those were awesome.