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Hello! I went to the HATE (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts) Club's first ever tournament this weekend with a variation on the list I'm planning to take to the NOVA Open next week. The even was an Escalation tournament with four games at 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 points, with Highlander rules (no unit duplication outside Troops). Here goes!

GAME 1
CSM vs CSM, 500pts, Maelstrom of War

* Belakor [350]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (9 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (Flamer) [63]

So, I was up against another CSM force to start on HATE's fantastic Chaos Temple terrain. His force consisted of a Khorne Lord on Juggernaut leading a squad of Bikers, a squad of Cultists and two Obliterators. I cunningly deployed my cultists completely out of sight behind the temple, stretched out in a long line so that they could pick one of two objectives to contest every turn as and when the cards came up.

His Bikers and Lord raced forwards, and I suffered a minor setback when, instead of Invisibling himself, Belakor suffered a Perils, but he then cut through the Bikers and Lord easily, and followed up by bouncing around eating the Cultists and Obliterators. In the end, he was tabled. Major win to me!






GAME 2
CSM vs Astra Militarum, 1000pts, The Scouring

* Belakor [350]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (10 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (Flamer) [63]
* Helfist Murderpack (4 Multimeltas, 3 Powerfists, 1 Thunder Hammer, Champion has Powerfist & Power Scourge) [515]

So, for this game I got the first iteration of the Murderpack, and I was up against Willard's AM. A few Veteran Squads in Chimeras and an Infantry platoon to hold backfield objectives, backed up by some tooled up squads in a Vendetta and a Valkyrie. And it was lengthways deployment so he was much more mobile than me! I was quite worried about this.

As it happened, I had a lucky game. Belakor spent his time swooping behind cover, so benefitted from his Shrouding, and the invisible Helbrutes, though they couldn't get to his table edge, were able to down a Vendetta with a lucky Multimelta shot, killing everyone inside. Belakor managed to take the Valkyrie down with a Vector Strike (again, lucky) and suddenly his army couldn't really move forward enough to contest anything. Another win to me!






We then took a little pizza break and looked at all the pretty armies.






GAME 3
CSM vs Space Wolves, 1500pts, Kill Points

* Belakor [350]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (10 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (10 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (Flamer) [63]
* Heldrake (Baleflamer) [170]
* 3 x Obliterators (Mark of Nurgle) [228]
* Helfist Murderpack (4 Multimeltas, 3 Powerfists, 2 Hvy Flamers, 1 Thunder Hammer, Champion has Powerfist & Power Scourge) [545]

Games are getting bigger! This was against a Space Wolves force of a Thunderwold Lord with Thunderwolf buddies, two units of Grey Hunters in Drop Pods, a Wolf Priest, a small Long Fang unit, and then an allied contingent of Iron Hands - four Bikers and a Bike Master with the Shield Eternal and a Thunderfire Cannon.

He started with a massed scary advance, one Drop Pod landing right behind my Dreads, but failing to hurt them. Belakor then took to the skies, since there were no anti-air options, and proceeded to Psychic Shriek the feth out of everyone all game. First turn saw the entire bike unit go down, leaving the Chapter Master on his own. The Thunderwolves attempted to outflank, but got bogged down with the endless hordes of Cultists arriving from reserve. The Heldrake took care of the various MEQ squads, and it was almost another table by the end of the game. Another major win!





GAME 4
CSM vs Tyranids, 2000pts, Maelstrom of War

* Belakor [350]
* 4 x Chaos Terminators (2 Combimeltas, Hvy Flamer, Powerfist, Champion with Combimelta & Lightning Claw) [165]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (10 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (10 Autoguns, Hvy Stubber) [72]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (Flamer) [63]
* 12 x Chaos Cultists (Flamer) [63]
* Heldrake (Baleflamer) [170]
* Hell Blade [Daemonic Possession) [135]
* 3 x Obliterators (Mark of Nurgle) [228]
* Helfist Murderpack (4 Multimeltas, 3 Powerfists, 2 Hvy Flamers, 1 Thunder Hammer, Champion has Powerfist & Power Scourge) [545]
* Chaos Predator (Havoc Launcher, Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons) [127]

Last game was against a very grubbily Tyranid army. Two Trygons, a Mawloc, the Swarmlord and a Gribblethrope keeping everybody hidden, but a Tervigon in the back spawning objective-holding gaunts and a few squads of Raveners. My opponent was a bit worried, as he didn't have a lot of anti vehicle firepower, but as it turned out this was where my luck ran out.

Everything went a bit wrong. Belakor Periled a few times, before running into the Swarmlord, failing Invisibility, failing Psychic Shriek, missing and then failing every invulnerable save. Dead in the first round of combat! Raveners were charged by Dreadnoughts, but managed to roll endless sixes to glance and killed most of them in another turn of combat! The Trygons popped up behind my lines, but even the Terminators' melta, the Predator and all the Cultists at once couldn't down it. Generally, it didn't go well! This wasn't helped by my complete lack of experience against Tyranids, but it was a fun game anyway and a fitting end to my run of luck for the rest of the tournament. Even my opponent was embarrassed at the amount of 1s I was rolling!

So, my first Loss, and a major one at that. I ended up fifth on the score sheet, which I was pretty happy with, and at least I got some practice in with the new units before NOVA!

I just want pictures of the tables you have, they all looks great!

Do you have any pictures of the tau themed table? I've been trying to build a table with tau buildings but haven't been able to get the right look so far...

I don't have any more photos but there might be more on the HATE Club site or Facebook group (link on their site) - http://hate-club.org

One of the guys who runs it has an art manufacturing workshop (where the tournament took place) which explains the pretty high level of terrain. I think those tau domes are made from the pre-formed polystyrene circles/shapes you get in most arts and crafts stores

Is the first picture for game 4 your Obliterators? Those look awesome! As always, great reports here; thank you for sharing.

Sounds like good fun, escalation is an interesting form. Well done, to bad your luck ran out there

Lovely, thanks for sharing! Those Novamarines looked great, as did your army. Good to see some old school Chaos Dreadnaughts (they wil never be Hellbrutes to me!) doing so well. Also love your oblits and Belakor conversion. Good luck at NOVA, do it for the Brits!

Thanks for the report Ian, always a pleasure

On the army, as derpy as the old metal dreads are, seeing five of them ganged up like that is pretty damn awesome

Good luck at NOVA!

- Salvage

Looking forward to more tales of the Murderpack, looks like great fun to play.

Nice, concise batreps. Knights seem to be rather popular tourney fodder, huh? And I know nothing about the Murderpack formation, but I love dreads so it's cool that you've taken five of the old, METAL beasts and breathed new life into them

Great rundown of the events. All the armies looked fantastic. Well done!

Cool!

Makes sense, you lost to the only person who could out roll you.

Thanks guys. I got in a few games at Frontline last week in the Bay Area, spend all week driving down the coast and I'm now in LAX awaiting my flight to NOVA!

tomjoad wrote:Is the first picture for game 4 your Obliterators? Those look awesome! As always, great reports here; thank you for sharing.

Yup, those are the guys. The P&M Blog for them is here - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/426461.page

the_Armyman wrote:Nice, concise batreps. Knights seem to be rather popular tourney fodder, huh? And I know nothing about the Murderpack formation, but I love dreads so it's cool that you've taken five of the old, METAL beasts and breathed new life into them

The Murderpack is quite fun. Basically, you take five Helbrutes as one vehicle squadron, and one of them gains a free upgrade to a Hellbrute Champion (with a 5++). As long as he is alive, you can choose the result on the crazed table. If he dies, the whole unit get Rage.