Howdy y'all,
Out here in West Texas we had a local ITC-style tournament using the new Eternal War missions from Chapter Approved 2018. If you havent reviewed those missions, do yourself a favor and check them out; they are head and shoulders above the rulebook missions. They 100% favor playing the objective, tabling doesn't lose you the game if you have more victory points in the end. Many of them have points scored at the end of the battle round, which gives the person who goes 2nd a big mission advantage in exchange for losing the chance of an alpha strike (which is also slightly mitigated by the 2CP cover-for-everyone strategem). Kill points also aren't nearly the handicap they used to be either (though they aren't completely gone, as you'll see in game 3).
This tournament was well attended and featured a mix of pretty competitive lists, some of them very creative. Some examples include: triple knights+guard/slam captains, Dark Eldar venom/flyer spam, Altioc fire prisms/dark reapers, riptide Tau, and some gunline admech but also a Tyranid utilizing Warriors to great effect, a very well played legacy Blood Angels army featuring several dreads and a landraider of all things, and a very interesting and powerful admech list featuring 6x dragoons.
I ended up bringing what I consider a pretty well balanced list, with quite a few troops and command points and a lot of tactical flexibility all centered around a Shadowsun-boosted firebase:
This list doesn't bring as much
raw firepower as other lists (side note: I don't actually own any riptides, hence their absence) but it hits a lot of beats. 6x broadsides with shadowsun is nothing to scoff at. 10x shield drones with the option to either add 12x gun drones (if going second vs a shooty army) or deepstrike them (if going first vs a mid range or melee-centric list or to snag linebreaker) give them plenty of survivability.
The Sacea Ethereal gives
LD 10 and
FNP to everyone in range as well as opening up the Sacea markerlight strat. The Firewarriors are basic but effective, I tend to keep the basic squads grouped up with the non-warlord fireblade and approach an objective from an angle; a couple had missile pods to increase their effectiveness from the backfield. The kroot are a controversial choice but I find them absolutely vital to take up space, denying deepstriking and keeping fast assault units away from the broadsides.
At least one unit of stealth suits is a pretty good idea in the new missions, their deployment flexibility gives them a lot of options. Even when going second they can be absolutely vital by throwing a key Neuroweb Jammer on a key unit (a Castellan or Hellblasters or Riptide/broadsides or a Baneblade). I also like them as a place for a drone controller, no need to sacrifice a slot on a bigger unit and they are already in a forward position where their move (with advance if needed) can get them in 6'' of most places you'll want to drop those gun drones (vitally important in game 3).
One thing I havent seen on here that was EXTREMELY useful was the VRT on my T'au sept commander.
Anyway, to the games!
Game 1 vs Eldar
Combo of Altioc long ranged stuff and Ulthwe troops:
Altioc: 2x Fire Prisms, 10x Dark Reapers, Hemlock
Ulthwe: Eldrad, 3x farseers, 3x Spirit Seer/Warlocks, 6x Wraith Guard (cannons), 2x5 Dire Avengers, 15x Guardians, Wave Serpent
Mission: Cut Off the Head ('intel points' on characters, score for them being alive and for them being near the center objective)
Deployment: Spearhead Assault (short board edges)
Map: Densely covered in urban terrain and craters, including many buildings which counted as enclosed having enclosed first floors.
I won the roll off and took second because I felt the terrain would allow me to weather the alpha strike effectively. He deployed the Dark Reapers in a tall building (with a farseer nearby), the fireprisms and hemlock near the back of his zone, the infantry in craters near the front, the wave serpent with a bunch of psykers in it near the front behind a building, and the wraithguard deep striking. Eldrad and the 2 mounted farseers were his intel characters.
My intel points were on my commanders (deep striking with the drones) and my non-warlord Fireblade. I deployed the big fire base in a building right near the front of my deployment zone, really close to the center, but completely out of
LOS of his firebase. The mobile firewarriors and the non-warlord Fireblade set upbehind a building but out of cover (they'd have the strat first turn so it didnt matter), also out of
LOS of the reapers. 2x kroot unit set up in a ring behind the firebase, seeking to push back the deepstriking wraithguard and not leave room for a hemlock base near any of the firebase characters. The 3rd kroot set up next to the firebase, ready to jump out if needed. I did not attempt to seize.
Turn 1:
His turn saw all his spells go off, the hemlock flew over but could only get in range of kroot with his flamer. The prisms maneuvered to get smoke shots on firewarriors. The darkreapers were unable to similarly maneuver as they were high up a building, they settled for the exarch shooting at drones and killing 1 and finishing off a Kroot unit (first strike is sooo important!). He disembarked characters and moved the wave serpent directly over the center point. VERY successful weathering of first turn.
On my turn I had some choices. The hemlock was behind me, and out of 12'' at -2 to hit. The Fire Prisms (with their brutal shoot 4x and reroll everything strat) were also at -1 to hit. I decided to ignore all of them (the lists actual damage dealers) and focus on the forward elements. I actually used Mont'Ka on Shadowsun, the broadsides exploded out of the ruins with the 'vres juuuust within 3'' on the drones left inside. Shadowsun, the ethereal, the forward kroot unit, and the 2x missile pod
FW followed. The warlord Fireblade maneuvered to get a marker shot on the wave serpent but stayed back. Between Sacea
ML strat and uplinked markerlight from the fireblade, I got 5 lights on the wave serpent, though the +1 was negated by the -1 to hit eldar strat. One broadside unit took it down with
HYMP and seekers while
SMS worked on the infantry. Suddenly there was nothing in front of his characters. The second unit of broadsides worked on them, aiming 1 broadside each at eldrad and the 2 farseers. Subpar rolls and decent saves led to me killing a farseer but Eldrad made a ton of 3+ invul saved. The rest of the army plinked at infantry, killing both dire avengers and a couple guardians.
Turn 2:
Wraithguard deepstrike within 12'' on Broadsides and open up on them along with the fire prisms (soooo many shots rerolling everything), guided dark reapers, and Hemlock. Neuroweb on the wraithguard did help some, but not enough. Doom and the -1 to save power killed 2 broadsides and ZERO shield drones left. He just outside of range of the point with his guardians, 2 surviving intel characters, and wraith guard. Tough situation.
I call Kauyon and deepstrike the commanders and drone reinforcements near the surviving broadsides. I kill off the hemlock (now within 12'') with Shadowsun and a commander and try my best to kill off the wraithguard... it doesn't work. I wiff and just cant' bring enough to get through the layers of protective spells and strats (4+ invul>3+ invul>fortune 5+++>-1 to hit... it got kinda rough when he realized I needed to kill the guys). Stupidly I use my VRT commanders to try and tie the Wraithguard up in combat... he takes some wounds in overwatch and then after I end my turn I immediately learn they can shoot after falling back (he made it sound like it was an army rule but in review it looks like a strat? Not sure if I got gamed there). The surviving firewarriors start to do some work on the guardians: I do manage a bit of tricks: Shadowsun not moving from Kauyon allows her to use orbital lazer in addition to shooting! I draw a line between all 3 characters and the guardians and take off about 5 wounds total: great value since I have so many extra
CP.
Turn 3
Here's the turning point. He smites and shoots the forward commander, the last unit of kroot, and all but 2 broadsides down. Feeling the game within his grasp, he makes a terrible mistake: he declares a charge with his Wraithguard. With a markerlight hit from the fireblade, the surviving commander, shadowsun, gun drones, and broadsides kill all but 2 of them. The broadsides are tied up, but now all that stands in between me and his characters is a squad of guardians.
I fall back with the broadside, converge the drones and the forward firewarriors/Fireblade (everyone in extra shot range), and throw all my markerlights on the the guardians (4++/6+++, no -1 to hit cuz he was out of ). I manage to kill the last (now unsupported) wraithguard with firewarrior missile pods and incidental shots, kill the guardians in a storm of pulse fire, and am able to spread fusion blaster shots around the characters. Eldrad is the last, Shadowsun takes him down due to being within 9'' for the better wound roll.
At this point I've scored a bit more than him, and without psykers or command points his backfield shooting is greatly diminished. I score another 4 points turn 4 and he concedes.
Game 2 vs Tau
Top table at the moment, vs a Tau player who mopped up a space marine player. Tau v Tau is a bit of a specialty of mine, first turn is obviously advantageous but things like neuroweb and keeping drones out non-moving
SMS range is key. His list contained: shadowsun, coldstar w/ fusion, commander w/ fusion, 50x firewarriors, ~15 pathfinders, ethereal, fireblade, ~30 gun and shield drones, 3x stealth suits, 3x
CIB crisis suits, riptide, and 2x broadsides. Traded a bit of firebase for more
FW and some
CIB suits; still a lot of boom in the army.
Mission: Beachhead (center obj, 1 in each deployment zone, center worth 2 points and enemy's worth 3 points)
Deployment: Front Line Assault (weird triangualar long edges)
Map: Desert terrain with lots of
LOS blocking rock formations, not as crowded as last map
He won the roll (meaning he had to go second) and gave me the zone I wanted. I deployed the firebase flanked by
FW with a back line of kroot blocking any possible drops from commanders/suits within range. I put the stealth suits right near his center line behind some rocks (to neuroweb his riptide or broadsides). I kepts the gun drones and commanders in reserve.
He deployed basically mirror to me and I could tell he wasnt as familiar with the match up: he didnt deploy all drones in range of both riptide and broad, didnt set up drones outside
LOS AND/OR 30'' of broadsides, didn't try to deny a flank... he didn't realize it when he was setting up but I was pretty sure this was gonna end badly.
Turn 1:
He fails to seize and uses the cover strat. I Kauyon'd,
CC'd, got 5 marker light hits on both the broadsides and the riptide and picked off some drones and pathfinders with incidental fire (kroot killed a BUNCH of pathfinders within rapid fire range). Then the first unit of broadsides (w/
CC) opens up, focusing on the riptide. I split the
SMS onto the softened up drone units within 3'' of the riptide; since you resolve one unit of shooting before moving on I kill every single drone before the
HYMP and seeker missiles land on the riptide and annihilate it. I do the same for the broadsides and they go down too.
He's looking a bit dejected, but he's a good sport and we play it out a bit further. His firewarriors take out kroot and stealth suits.
Turn 2:
I kauyon again and kill off most of the firewarriors/pathfinders and deepstrike onto his side of the field with the commanders and drones for line breaker.
He deepstrikes but gets neurowebed and doesn't have any
ML support so they do nothing.
Turn 3:
I pretty much table him and we call it after scoring up. I see some other people playing on after basically conceding to maximize the victory point margin (used for tie breakers) and hope it doesn't matter. Looks like there are only 2 other people who are 2-0 after 2 of the best players somehow managed to tie; if I win out I should still have it.
Game 3 vs Dark Eldar
Here's the flyer and venom spam! This guy really knew his stuff and I learned a lot about a few rules niceties this game...
He had: 2x archons, 6x venoms w/ double splinter cannons and kabalites w/ blasters (Flayed Skull of course), 3x void bombers (black skull air wing), 6 talos/chronos in 3 units and a haemonulus (4+ invul). I don't play against
DE very much but I gotta say, their sect bonuses are amazing. +3'' movement AND reroll 1's AND ignore cover on all flyers/transported units? 5+>4+ invul on toughness 7 talos? 6+++ on flyers (also granting access to vect)? Solid list here, he apparently demolished his previous 2 games.
Mission: 4 poles (1 objective near center of each quadrant, only troops can control and you get a point only for controlling MORE objectives and only at end of BATTLE ROUND, also the person with the most kill points each BATTLE ROUND gets a point; this is a low scoring mission with a solid advantage in objectives for the person going second.
Deployment: Search and Destroy (first thing I learned was that you couldn't pick any quadrant, only the 2 shown in the deployment map... really took me by surprise)
Map: Semi-urban with a lot of taller, skinnier buildings and a terraced hill. One of the objectives ended up on top of this hill good 6'' up and 4'' across from the ground level. Another 2 objectives ended up right behind tall skinny buildings in each deployment zone, one of them an enterable ruin and the other a closed tower. The 4th was in the open with nothing around.
I "win" the roll and have to go second. Not the worst with this mission but his army just has a lot of speed and damage capacity so I think going second was still a major disadvantage. I pick the corner with the enterable building, this became key to my strategy.
He deploys the talos near the center line, the venoms behind them, and the flyers spread out in the back. I set up a unit of
FW in the building such that they control the obj along with all the shield drones. The broadsides set up outside the building within 3'' of the drones. All the rest of the firewarrior set up, stupidly in hind sight, in a bid to grab the objective the in open while 2 units of kroot set up to move on the hill objective. This splitting was a major mistake; I should have gone all in one one objective and simply tried to deny the other with my second turn advantage and the range on
SMS. Luckily only disembarked warriors could control objectives so I'd always get a chance to shoot the squishy elves before they scored. I don't keep anything in reserve, one commander bolstered the fire base and the other and all the gun drones went with the firewarriors and fireblade. The stealthsuits deployed nearby just out of
LOS.
Turn 1:
He advances the Talos into the middle of the field, he'll be able to assault my broadsides next turn with at least the front unit. He very smartly ignores the broadsides entirely and goes straight for my troops, playing the mission. His venoms and their dudes focus down 3 squads of
FW, a void bomber kills 9(!) out of a kroot squad with the bomb while the 2 others bombed the single
FW squad hidden in the building and only killed 2 of them, and he moved to threaten both objectives out of our deployment zone after disembarking. It felt like a lot of damage, especially in terms of troops lost, but he'd also committed the same error I did by splitting his forces over both open objectives. Maybe even worse because he had 2 squads pushed pretty close to the middle
My firebase was undiminished by their effectiveness was mitigate during my turn. I declared Kauyon and my opponent asked the check the rule. Apparently because Kauyon specifies only reroll FAILED hit rolls, that means you can't reroll hits that will fail AFTER modifiers (which happen after the reroll I guess)? Everyone agreed so I went with it even though I'd never heard the argument before. I only managed to kill 2 venoms and weaken a few more. I also exploded the front group of Talos trying to keep out of combat for another turn. The biggest win came in the movement phase however, my last group of kroot rolled to advance up the hill towards the objective (currently unclaimed because his dudes were still in transports). They needed 11 inches... roll a 1. I command reroll to roll it again, get a 5, and move them. I move 1-2 more units and start the shooting phase before he remembers he could have Vect'ed the reroll. In the end he killed more units and I claimed more objectives, 1-1.
Turn 2:
He finishes off all of my troops except the guys hidden in the building. He disembarks a single squad on both outside objectives. He starts aiming at my broadsides and drones but his shooting is less effective this turn, picking off drones and putting wounds on a broadside but not killing anything. He had the chance to assault into the ruin with a talos to try to kill the warrior holding the point there, but would have taken the full brunt of the fire base if he'd tried so he didnt.
On my turn I Kauyon'd again and popped all the venoms but an empty one and the one with the Archons and cleared off all of the his troops (kabalites drop like flies out of their transports) except the ones hiding on his back objective. I ignored the fliers completely and This time I killed more units and got a point leaving it 2-1.
Turn 3:
He closes in on my point with the Talos but is running out of shooting without his venoms. He picks off a single suit with his flyers and I'm down to zero drones. He still hesitates with the talos; probably should have tried to go all in right then but he didnt know what I had planned so I cant blame him.
On my turn I deliberately advance my stealth suits and gun drones to get them in range of his final kabalite squad in his own corner. Everyone focusing on them brings them down and they go down. The turn ends and I score on one objective and kill more units. 4-1 for me. He concedes as unable to catch up, great guy we talked for the last 20 minutes of the round.
Take away:
So 3-0 with 2 close games and one determined largely by alpha strike. I learned a lot and had a blast. I think my biggest single lesson was "ignore everything that doesn't directly matter, even if it can kill you." Getting to Montka with broadsides was fun too, and it worked out pretty well I think. The new missions are amazing, such an improvement in balance and strategy.
