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Last weekend I was at the Northern Warlords GT, a 44-player 40k tournament in Warrington, UK. (Rulespack here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mpz6myhvuha37jg/40k%20GT%20Rules%20Pack%202015.pdf?dl=0).

This is my first “big” (or at least medium sized) 40k event, with high level players (including a chunk of various ETC teams) in attendance. I’ve done small events at the Outpost in Sheffield before – great events, but only 16-20 people and not as high a level of competition, so I expected going in to face a much tougher challenge. A report of one of my Outpost events is up on here somewhere.

I’ve played some fairly high level tournament Fantasy before – not quite ETC level, but I was always only a little bit behind those players, and usually placed top-20% or so of events. However, I’m waiting for Age of Sigmar to settle in before I decide if it’s for me as a tournament game. This isn’t a report of a ragequit to 40k, more me trying something new out to see if I have fun, while I wait to see what becomes of my “main” game. Who knows, I might end up playing both…

Usually, otherwise, I’m a club gamer, so used to less scary armies. However, I’ve a very analytical sort of brain and am good at sifting and sorting information, and I read the internet a lot. As such, I’ve picked up a lot of inspiration as to how 40k plays at tournament level from sources like the battle reports on here, and I’m usually decent at working out which advice to follow and which to discount, from cross-referencing sources and concepts. Will the untried second-hand experience serve me well, or will I crash and burn when trying to put it into practice on the tabletop?

Rulespack is 1750pts, no Forgeworld, 2 source limit, and no Lords of War except for Imperial Knights (who have to be the primary detachment – so one needs at least 3). Missions are all a combination of an Eternal War, a Maelstrom, and killpoints – I gather they either are, or are modelled on, the ETC scenarios? Unlike the ITC model often referenced in battle reports on here, you add the score from each mission and compare to a table to get a final result (with KP differential capped at 8); it’s not enough to just win Maelstrom by 1 point, for example, for the full score – you have to pull ahead significantly in each to get the big results, or else table your opponent for the automatic 20.

So, what did I bring?

HQ1 - Kor'sarro Khan (Warlord), Moondrakkan 150
HQ2 - Chapter Master, Space Marine Bike, Artificer Armour, Thunder Hammer, Shield Eternal 250

Elites1 - Command Squad, Bikes, Apothecary, 4 Graviton Guns, 200
Elites2 - Command Squad, Bikes, Apothecary, 4 Graviton Guns, 200
Elites3 - Command Squad, Bikes, Apothecary, 4 Graviton Guns, 200

Troops1 - 3 Bikes, Attack Bike, 2 Meltaguns, Multimelta, 133
Troops2 - 3 Bikes, Attack Bike, 2 Meltaguns, Multimelta, 133
Troops3 - 3 Bikes, Attack Bike, 2 Meltaguns, Multimelta, 133
Troops4 - 3 Bikes, 2 Meltaguns, 83

Fast Attack1 - Stormtalon, Typhoon Missile Launcher, 130
Fast Attack2 - Stormtalon, Typhoon Missile Launcher, 130

I’ve had the army since the Index Astartes list in 3rd edition, though I took a big break around the end of 4th/all of 5th in order to play WFB. Haven’t even added many models since – just added grav guns and the stormtalons, and the talons were new for this event. Normally I run Legion of the Damned in their place, but waveserpents are less of an issue these days, and I was worried about my lack of anti-air. They’re also decent backfield scorers with Hover, and I like the models.

It’s a very fast army, with mobile resilient Objective Secured, a potentially nasty alpha strike, and the option to null-deploy and outflank heavily (though the lack of reserve manipulation is a pain). Equally, it’ll take tight play to compete with the modern crop of top-tier tournament lists, and it has nightmares about Heldrakes…

I considered bringing a Culexus in a Pod instead of the Chapter Master, but looking back, it’d have been a mistake. Anyway, it’s a list with the potential to do well, but not a top flight option, and somewhat limited by my model availability and painting time.

Sorry for the lack of photos – only decided to do write-ups after the event.

On to the games:


Game 1: Craig Carlton (CentStar)

His list:
Nemesis Strike Force:
Draigo
2* Lv3 Librarian
5 Strikes with a Flamer
2 Nemesis Dreadknights (Flamer+Psycannon)
Space Marine CAD:
Tigurius
2*5 scouts
4 Grav Centurions
Imperial Bunker

Mission: Big Guns (5 objectives) primary, with Tactical Escalation secondary and Killpoints tertiary. Hammer and Anvil deployment.

It must be said here that Craig really helped me feel welcome on the UK 40k tournament scene. He friend-requested me on Facebook before the event, after I posted in the page for the event, and introduced himself; we had a lot of general chatter about the game and the scene and what to expect before I arrived, and kept in touch through the event and since. Thanks Craig, you really made a difference to the time I had.

The army is a fairly classic teleporting invisible grav-deathstar, I imagine most readers know what it does. I gather it isn’t top tier anymore, but remains very good nonetheless. (A lot like bikes, really…)

Immediately, my thought in this game is I’m playing to not get tabled. I should be able to answer the Dreadknights with Grav, and clear out the Scouts and Strikes, scoring me 5KP, so if I’m not tabled he can lead by at most 5. I should be able to make that up on Maelstrom, and pull out the win on objectives. The hard bit is not getting tabled, given with splitfire he can as often as not kill 2 units a turn… I’m hoping for an early game end, and/or poor dice from him.

There are, nonetheless, ways I can mitigate. I go for a mostly null deploy, keeping a lot of units in Outflank. I initially plan to deploy the command squad (with Khan and CM) plus one unit set up using terrain so that he can’t splitfire into both and table me turn 1. (I reckon odds are he about kills the chapter master but not much else with the centstar, but all it takes is a bit of luck, given my rather silly decision not to take Storm Shields. In fairness, points were tight and my models don’t have them.) With the troop bike squad I deploy, and the command squad, I wrap them round LOS-blocking terrain using the long bases so it’ll be very hard for him to completely wipe out either unit.

Here’s where my tournament inexperience is saved by sportsmanship from my opponent, as he points out the nemesis strikeforce can deepstrike turn 1, which I hadn’t realised. I deploy an extra bike unit, wrapped round terrain as before, to further reduce the odds of being tabled. Thankfully I won the deployment rolloff, so at least I’m going second, with a better shot at the objectives therefore, and killing his reserves after they come in should be fairly simple. I don’t even try to seize.

I did say I’d need some luck, right? Well, I got it. Turn 1, my opponent comes out of bunker, casts invisibility, and then throws 5 dice at Gate, only getting 1 success. I throw my 2 dispel dice, up comes a (double) 6, and he’s stuck not Gating for a turn. Score – I have a whole turn of firepower not killing my units. (I reckon he should have thrown more dice, but it’s still incredibly lucky.) Only one dreadknight comes in, and deepstrikes midfield to go for objectives (I think it might shoot one bike maybe?)

Spotting an opportunity, given he’s right next to the bunker with Tigurius, I drop my Orbital Bombardment on the corner of the bunker – I can’t target the Invisible deathstar, but I can aim at the fortification and hit them incidentally. Sadly, I scatter off target – totally worth a shot, as it’d be a huge swing if I get him, or even just kill some Centurions to reduce the unit’s firepower a bit.

Turn 2, and he brings in the other Dreadknight – contemplates going in my backfield, but decides to stay midfield and try to mitigate my Maelstrom lead. The Strikes do similar. This does leave me a nice juicy set of targets for my Outflanking units…

So, about that luck. Thankfully, the table has a fair bit of Impassable terrain, making Gate deepstrikes slightly risky / making him less able to go for certain areas of the board, especially when taking into account my units as well. (In retrospect, I should have been spreading out more to further deny space to land in). Anyway, down a turn of fire, he goes for a deepstrike between my units and gets a 9” scatter directly off the table. Awesome. Rolls a 5, so it’s ongoing reserves, but I’ve just gained another turn of safety, meaning odds of being tabled now are really very low.

There’s also an opportunity here – given we’re playing Hammer and Anvil and I have fast units in Outflank with long bases, if I get the right rolls I can entirely block his board edge, preventing the Cents from entering from Reserve and taking him out of the game for turn 3 as well. I wonder if this would be considered poor play, ask my opponent, who says he’d do it if the roles were reversed, so I roll the reserve rolls – and only get in my fliers and the 2 command squads, who both come in the same side (in fact, I don’t roll above a “2” for outflank side all game), making it a moot point.

Ah well – I drop a Dreadknight and the Strikes, scoring two kill points and First Blood. That’ll do. The game from here is more problematic – the Star is able to come on, Gate into the middle, and do a bunch of damage – 3W to the chapter master turn 3 along with most of a bike squad, and then finishing my Command Squad + Khan in turn 4, while I clean up the Scouts. (The last Dreadnight dodges away madly, and with poor Outflanks I don’t have the ability to chase it down.) I’m getting nervous again – he has killed a few units now, and his dice now run hot while mine have abandoned me – but he really needs turn 7 to whittle me down enough to not lose big, and it doesn’t happen. (We ran out of time, but also rolled for it and it ended turn 6).

In the end I’ve got a commanding Maelstrom lead – something like 12-2 – plus loads of objectives and actually doing fine on Killpoints, thanks to wrapping units round terrain and my awesome luck. Ends up being 31-12 on the scoresheet, exactly enough for the 20-0 win.

Ouch, my opponent really didn’t deserve that! Still, good place to be at the start of the tournament, and I felt pretty happy with my play – precise movement, careful playing to objectives, and mitigating the damage of his deathstar. Only thing I needed to do better was deny Gate space with my units, to make his deepstrikes riskier.

Game 2 – Andy “Chewie”, Iron Hands

Clan Raukaan

Chapter Master on Bike (Gorgon’s Chain and so on), Warlord
Chapter Master on Bike
Cypher
Techmarine on Bike
Techmarine on Bike
5 Scouts (bolters)
5 Scouts (bp/ccw)

Librarius Conclave
Librarian, Lv2, Bike
Librarian, Lv2, Bike
Librarian, Lv2, Bike
Librarian, Lv2, Bike

Mission: Crusade (4 objectives), Cleanse & Control, Killpoints

So, another invisible deathstar… This one with less easy killpoints and more mobility, but less shooting firepower. The game is all about keeping it penned in and stopping it multi-charging – I’m never going to kill the main unit. I also figured I’d be able to kill the scouts and try to generate a Maelstrom lead.

I underestimated this list, despite having been warned the player was very good – I hadn’t seen some of the tricks it can pull coming.

My opponent did roll Invisibility, on the 7th roll, and also rolled the warlord trait for 2+ FNP on the Warlord. Well, I wasn’t planning on hurting the unit anyway…

What I figure is that I can’t afford to be shoved into one corner of the board where I then get multi-assaulted. I’ve also got to keep the lead in Maelstrom, and try to get several Crusade objectives, which will mean threatening the army’s backfield to keep it concerned about being outmanoeuvred. As such, I again Outflank a fair chunk of my army – I figure bits and pieces will come in on his side and die, but will probably score me points along the way to offset the killpoint deficit, and mean he has to pay attention to them rather than coming after my backfield. I’ll again be hoping for an early game finish – if the game goes late, he can clear up my backfield threats and advance onto my remaining units, penning them in and killing several for killpoints and to deny me objective space. (He can split late game, potentially, to score several – I’ve got to keep my Objective Secured units alive, and hope enough survives to keep Hit and Run-ing out past him to split his attention, if he does that.) At least I get second turn – this gives me a much better position for scoring objectives.

As it happens, my opponent keeps tight to his backfield, hoping to kill my outflankers and control space. He rolls pretty well for Maelstrom, where I don’t, but I at least only get two units on his side of the board, so only give up a couple of killpoints. He’s not advancing into me as compared to the space wolf equivalent, this list doesn’t kick out as much combat damage, so multiassaults are less threatening given my Hit and Run. It just loses him board control over several objectives and potentially allows me to split up. (I’m advised, after the game, that if such a list rushes me I can potentially tie them up with Chapter Master briefly, then block their Hit and Run with my other units to prevent/limit their escape, or at least reduce their ability to hit my full army. I should model some Storm Shields on one of my Command Squads…)

As to how I underestimated the list – I was expecting two easy killpoints in his Scouts, and to be able to threaten contests with my Stormtalons late (which he has very little to kill – just Cleansing Flame and grav fire, which takes attention away from the rest of my army). What I didn’t see was just how much the list can split up and move about – before my Talons came on, given my main force was quite a way back, he split a Chapter Master into one Scout unit, cast Invisibility on the other and then just had the 2+ jink (with Cypher) and the second Chapter Master tanking for the third sub-unit. This meant it could safely threaten several places at once without fear of giving up cheap killpoints, and gave him much better objective scoring than I’d have had otherwise. As it was, I never got either Scout unit – not for lack of trying, a luckily-surviving command squad from outflank charged it and failed to get the kill over two rounds of combat, and Stormtalons able to get to the side without characters couldn’t finish them with Assault Cannons either.

That was the game pretty much – me sitting in my half, him in his, me bleeding points slowly keeping his army occupied and discouraging him from rushing me outright to get the big result, but unable to break into his castle as he split units around, cast powers, and protected his scouts / dealt with my fast moving stuff.

I don’t know if I was too conservative, but I figured that if I close too far toward his army to try to score objectives for Maelstrom, I just end up giving up killpoints and reducing the army I have available later on to deter him from rushing me / score the Crusade objectives. As such, I end up penned into my backfield but able to score those objectives, and down a few killpoints for a stormtalon that got shot down (as I recall – one plasma shot from Cypher, through jink…) and the two outflanking units that died. Ended up losing 14-6, which is not exactly ideal, but could have been worse if the game ended later (equally, could have been better with more favourable Maelstrom rolls). Could have been 12-8 if that Stormtalon survived.

Sorry this is short on detail – it’s a bit fuzzy at this stage, and it was an incredibly complex game of movement and countermovement despite not much really happening, so describing precise movements would be difficult in a turn-by-turn account. Roughly, I think:

T1 him: he goes first. Throws Orbital Bombardment at Khan, doesn’t get the kill.
T1 me: I keep out of 24, play for what Maelstrom cards I can.
T2 him: scouts come on, characters fold out into them to protect them. Doesn’t come within 24 of me either.
T2 me: four outflanks come on out of six, all on my table side – pretty good rolling. Don’t recall if the Talons come in, but I’ve got a big clump sitting on objectives out of his immediate reach.
T3 him: he moves uptable a bit, is now controlling 3 objectives and threatening a 4th. Keeps stuff back to worry the remaining outflanks.
T3 me: other two units come on, both on his side. I go after the Scouts but Go to Ground keeps him safe. Stormtalons can get a few of them by being closer to scouts than characters, and/or getting hits past Invisibility/Shrouding (I forget which tricks he used where), but it’s not enough to kill either unit. Think I go for a bombardment on one part of the split unit that isn’t Invisible, but miss wildly.
T4 him: some stuff splits off and charges a command squad. I roll well on FNP, 3 models live, I hit and run out. At this stage the Scouts are less protected as he didn’t see the need to shield them, I spy an opportunity. Rest of army just controls space and plays it safe.
T4 me: Command squad shoot and charge 2 scouts, and a Talon shoots them too. I kill precisely zero models. One of my Stormtalons flies off, the other positions for a Hover to contest an objective T5.
T5 him: rescuers come to the aid of the Scouts, and kill my Command Squad, who again utterly fail to kill the two remaining models. Cypher shoots down my Stormtalon (other one flies back on, so can’t hover this round), stopping me from contesting an objective. He otherwise comes forward to potentially push me off my-side objectives T6 if the game goes on.
T5 me: I jump on objectives, talon prepares for a hover-contest T6.
Game ends, I lose 14-6 – lost track of exactly how, don’t know if I missed a Crusade objective or if it was Maelstrom I was down on, to add to the KP differential.

Game 3: Will Metcalf, Drop Pod Skitarii

Mission: Emperor’s Will, Contact Lost, Killpoints

Flesh Tearers:
Librarian, Lv1 (Prescience, Precognition)
5 Tactical Marines, Lascannon
4 Drop Pods

Skitarii:
3*10 Rangers
3*10 Vanguards
(Some mix of weapons – two units had sniper rifles, two had haywire guns, and two had plasma. A few other bits of wargear scattered about the place)
2 Onagers with Icarus Arrays

I will admit I wasn’t entirely sure how much damage the drop would do. I won the roll to deploy first and deployed the command squad with chapter master and khan, and one other unit in the corner – making it difficult for opponent to drop to get both at close range unless taking some risks with the board edge, and keeping mostly out of range of his actually-deployed units so as to minimise damage further. This left a contested area on the right (my perspective) where he’d likely drop, or else he’d have to drop on the far side and be out of the game until jumped by my outflankers, hence splitting his forces dangerously. I put my Emperor’s Will objective in this corner, making the drop to land on it dangerous, and baiting him into giving up board control. I also gave him first turn so I could see his reserves arrive then attack them on my terms – in retrospect, it might have been preferable to deploy more stuff and have board presence to hit his drop troops as they came in with countercharges, but the chapter master does soak a lot of damage that’d otherwise have messed up my squishier bike squads, and it did give me a safe free flank. As it was, he went for the kill early, meaning the other flank was free for outflankers that arrived over there to clean up Maelstrom and objectives uncontested.

The drop did a lot of damage – I lost two members of the bike squad in the corner, three wounds off my chapter master and a couple of command squad members. The rest of his army mostly moved up somewhat. My return was thankfully fairly capable – shifted the command squad out, put chapter master in the back to keep him alive to hit, with the squad now sacrificial to absorb Overwatch. Khan split off to attack the other drop plasma unit, and the melta bike took a shot at a pod to start clearing my Emperor’s Will objective. Khan and the Chapter Master both killed several models and swept the units, earning me first blood and two kill points, and removing the dangerous plasma units.

His turn 2 and the second drop finishes off my characters, scoring him Warlord – and leaving the game entirely down to my reserves. Thankfully, some of them do come in, and one command squad arrives on the left to win me Maelstrom and the Emperor’s Will later in the game; while other units jump right in his backfield, away from his dropped units and able to shoot up the sniper units and tactical marines at the back. I’m also just in range for rear shots on the Onagers, and manage to blow one up with a multimelta. (Not before it takes a hullpoint off my stormtalon though – I brought them both in behind a ruin to get a cover save, and blew up some of the units that’d dropped, given they were quite clumped).

His 3 and a bunch of shooting damages my newly arrived outflankers a bit, but only two units are in range and they’re less well equipped than the rest of the army to really damage me, the S4 guns in particular don’t seem to do much. He does shoot down a Stormtalon though.

This frees me up to assault, while my remaining outflankers come on and start shooting yet more units (one comes in in the bottom corner to grab the Emperor’s Will via Objective Secured, and start meltagunning pods for killpoints, though the unit keeps epic-failing to damage them).

The game basically goes on like this – a messy close range brawl that is won for me by jink saves, T5, Hammer of Wrath, and Hit and Run. The Skitarii hold up surprisingly well in combat against small bike units, but don’t do enough damage to actually kill them very quickly, and I’ve got both Emperor’s Will objectives and a lead on Maelstrom, for the 15-5 win.

I felt less like I knew what I was doing in this game – just didn’t have a feel for the capabilities of the units. My overall strategy was approximately solid, but I did rely over-heavily on outflankers. I do wonder if I should have gone first – lets me get outflankers on quicker, so I’ve got a bigger balance of force able to counter-charge the drops as they arrive. Does just open those units up to damage though – but in practice, the characters are my quickest method of killing the Skitarii units, as they do enough damage in combat to sweep them.

Game 4: Christian Moore, Necron Decurion

Zandrekh
Orikan
Necron Lord (Veil of Darkness, Hyperphase Sword)
Destroyer Lord
16 Flayed Ones (this lot all formed one slow-moving deathstar)
3*3 tomb blades (3+ saves, twin-linked gauss blasters)
5 immortals
2*10 warriors
3*3 destroyers

Mission: Relic, with Spoils of War secondary and Kill Points tertiary. Dawn of War deployment.

This army is quite tough to kill, I can’t go anywhere near the deathstar, and the destroyers can do quite a lot of damage to me. Equally, I’ve got my own damage potential to hit it back, and more mobility to grab and protect the Relic (assuming I can avoid the Veil deepstrike). It also helps that the Relic fell between two bits of impassable terrain in the middle, making deepstrikes risky. My opponent also has no Objective Secured, so if I can get the Relic on a unit with that rule, I can prevent it being contested (eg by boosting Tomb Blades).

I’d won the roll to deploy first, and figured that for the first time I wanted to go first – so I could grab the relic and make away with it, and so I could cut down the Destroyers before they did too much damage to me. The lack of ObjSec means opponent having the last turn of the game matters less.

My major concern was how to avoid the deathstar. Thankfully the characters can’t infiltrate, so he has to either run them in another unit and then move out to join the flayed ones t1, or choose not to infiltrate (I didn’t realise you could do this – rulebook says no, but ETC FAQ allows it apparently) and be further from the Relic.

As such, I put the command squad with characters in the centre, near the Relic, and a smaller objective-secured bike squad next to it for an extra shot at the grab. If he infiltrated, I could use the bike squad for the grab, and the command squad to tie them down for a bit so I could get away (I didn’t scout them, for this reason). If he didn’t, I could pull back with a heavily protected unit until I got behind terrain, then split the chapter master and command squad off to go fight, leaving the small bike squad to sit on the objective (possibly with Khan to make it more resilient and leadership-reliable in case things went wrong). In either case, a chasing deepstrike would go into a region where there was a high risk of landing on impassable or one of my units, and I’d have space to retreat into.

Other command squads stayed semi-central, but a bit to either wing, able to jump out and bother destroyers. Meltabikes to support and grab Maelstrom objectives, which I’d tried to get as far out to the wings as possible, so my opponent would have to choose between chasing Maelstrom and chasing the Relic.

Opponent put deathstar in the centre (not infiltrated) and shooting on each wing, basically, with the Warriors and Immortals in reserve. Did not seize.

This left me following the plan – command squad moves onto relic, then boosts back with it. Other command squads shoot destroyers, along with meltabikes – I kill one unit outright with some excellent dice rolls, but fail to dent the other two (think I do a wound?). Forget precisely what Maelstrom I score when, but early game I pull way ahead.

Opponent jumps on me with destroyers and tomb blades, doing a decent bit of damage back, but not wiping any units, so I’m able to pull and boost them out of range to keep killpoints and scoring units safe. (One command squad, I forget if t1 or t2, I lose all but the apothecary, who then darts back out of LoS for a turn, then gets joined by the Chapter Master once the Relic is relatively safe). The critical bit, though? My opponent, feeling the pressure, makes a mistake and goes for the risky deepstrike right in front of my relic-carriers, scatters and mishaps into reserve. This is *huge* - the game is basically mine on a platter, as that hugely expensive unit will never get into the game, and I can just sit safely on the relic clearing up his shooting and mobile units on the flank, and scoring Maelstrom points.

This is basically what happens – I tie units up in combat in his turn so they can’t shoot me, bring the Chapter Master over to eat the left flank, and boost damaged bike squads back to the terrain the relic is behind in order to protect the killpoints. Not sure a turn by turn account adds much here – basically I lose one bike squad in combat to the star when it fails hit and run, and a stormtalon to weight of fire, and otherwise just sit tight on the relic. I can’t score many killpoints myself – only got 4 I think – and he gets some awesome Maelstrom rolls later on to pull back on that, but I still end up winning 15-5.

Game 5: Alex Harrisson, Eldar
Eldar Warhost:
Farseer on jetbike
Warlock on jetbike
Vyper
3*3 scatterbikes
3 aspect hosts: 3*5 warpspiders with exarchs, 3*3 dark reapers with exarchs
2 hemlock wraithfighters

Mission: Scouring, Deadlock, Killpoints, Vanguard Strike deployment

Wow, that’s a lot of mobile firepower!

So far in the tournament, while I’ll admit to some key bits of luck, I’ve also been pretty happy with my standard of play for a tournament newbie. I’ve played tight and consistent, kept to plan, gotten my positioning and strategy roughly right, and been thinking through my games. (Game 3 I didn’t play amazingly well, but it was far from awful either.)

This game? Yeah, this one I don’t play so well. Not sure what happened really. Think I got intimidated, talked myself into the loss before I began – I mean, I could blame the horrendous hangover and lack of decent sleep caused by the heavy drinking session the night before (I think I was bordering on double figure pints in the end?), but while that doubtless contributed, I managed to play games 4 and 6 just fine. As it is, I looked at the board, and thought:

-That’s a lot of firepower.
-Even with Night Fight (which was in play) I just can’t handle that for long, especially as I’m going 2nd.
-If I Outflank, the army is mobile enough to redeploy and shoot me to death. Grav aside, I don’t have much to damage enough Reapers or Warp Spiders fast enough.
-My possibly best odds are killing multiple units a turn in combat, and/or being tied in combat in his turn.
-Reapers are a right pain, as they are Ap3 and ignore my Jink.
-As such, I’m best off deploying on the board, using 2+ jink to survive non-Reaper units and normal nightfight cover (ruins, area) to hold off the Reapers. Hope that I survive it all, then boost in their face and see if they can stop me before I kill them in combat.
-If I’m a decent distance away, he either has to run forward before shooting, meaning he can’t use run to get further away from units shot at; or may have difficulty getting the shots off with poor jump rolls. This may buy me the turn I need. If he pulls back, it buys me breathing room.

Now, there are quite a few errors in the above analysis. For one, killing the units in combat doesn’t work well – their Overwatch can hurt, but most notably, Spiders have Hit and Run, and also apparently autopass Morale checks so I can’t sweep them, or indeed force ones near the board edge to run. Even with Warpspider mobility, too, if I Outflank I at least force him to have to react to the possibility of coming on behind him.

Anyway, he deploys – long line of Spiders at front of DZ, bikes behind. Reapers infiltrate due to warlord trait. I then counterdeploy. Plan is to stay back, threaten charges if he pushes too close with Spiders, then run at him, right? See, my brain remembers the “rush” bit of the plan, but when I get to scout moves, I think about threatening the Reapers (forgetting Scout prevents t1 charges, somehow), and getting close ASAP to crowd him in so he can’t escape the rush, and Scout forward. Right into his arms.

I have absolutely no idea what I was thinking. I had a plan, albeit not a perfect one, and totally abandoned it.

A better plan might have been to use terrain to hide some stuff (including end models of units) as best I could, use chaptermaster-unit to create a space denial zone for Spiders while making it not incredibly easy for them to jump-shoot-run at his command squad (ideally, needing long jumps), and outflank a few units to keep the Eldar army guessing. Play defensive, accept a slight Maelstrom deficit, see if I can cut down some firepower when the Outflanks come in / make my opponent make an error, and whether I can keep sufficient ability to jump onto objectives given my opponent has no Objective Secured.

Sadly, I didn’t do that, and paid the price. I won’t go into the full details here – suffice to say I didn’t seize (well, I did on the first roll, but realised as I rolled it that I’d picked it up and rolled it flat, giving me ¼ not 1/6 of a seize, so I rerolled it), and then got destroyed. Tabled turn 3 – but I only had a stormtalon on the board for that last turn.

Well, that was embarrassing! I had the tools to do it, I even had some of a concept of how to mitigate the matchup, and then totally failed to put it into practice, instead going for amateurish idiocy. I mean, I’m new to this, but I pride myself on my analytical mind, and I really should have seen what I was doing. Still – opponent was really nice, and can’t complain too hard really. OK, I can, I can complain that the bar wasn’t open! I needed a beer after that…

Game 6 – Joel Hulme, WolfStar

Iron Priest on thunderwolf
Iron Priest on thunderwolf
Wolf Guard Battle Leader on thunderwolf, powerfist, shield
Wolf Guard Battle Leader on thunderwolf, powerfist, shield
(Some of them had smaller wolves with them)
Runepriest Lv2 on bike
Cypher
5-6 or so thunderwolf cav, 2 powerfists, stormshields

Librarius Conclave:
Tigurius
3 librarians on bikes

Hammer and Anvil deployment
Crusade + Contact Lost

Woo, another Invisible deathstar… This said, I’m starting to learn what to do against them by now. This particular one, compared to the Iron Hands one from earlier, lacks any real shooting at all but is a lot scarier in combat – the characters can split off and potentially hurt me quite badly, as any of them basically eats one of my units. With all the wolves, this unit also has a larger footprint and can hence pull off longer multi-assaults.

Equally, it doesn’t split into parts *quite* as well as the Iron Hands did, and has no other units – so, eg, no Objective Secured scouts to keep midfield objectives safe from me.

Sadly, I lose the first turn roll and opponent makes me go first. I’ve deployed just the chapter master’s unit, one bike squad and khan – spread a bit to reduce odds of opponent going for, eg, Gate+Vortex for Firstblood; but aiming to be on the 3 objectives near my side of the table so I get loads of Maelstrom. I feel I should get a Maelstrom lead early since my opponent is unlikely to split while my reserves are about and might kill any characters not under Invisibility cover. The Orbital Bombardment needed to be down to make my opponent think twice about giving me first turn, but they took the risk – almost certainly the right call, but if I can intimidate an opponent into a mistake (via play, not behaviour!) I’ll take the chance.

The early game plays out like I expect – opponent hangs back but expands to create board control, casts Invisibility, waits for my Outflanking units. I get decent reserve rolls to keep stuff off the table, but can’t roll Maelstrom to save my life – I think my opponent scores almost every turn, with one roll each turn, while I can’t score anything until turn 3 despite 3/turn!

Eventually, though, some stuff has to come on behind him to pull him backwards, otherwise I just end up clumped in my deployment zone and he pushes forward and multiassaults late game. Maybe this list needs landspeeder storms to jump out and over deathstars to do the same thing? Anyway, I bring units on in the corners hoping that this limits what models get in, they might survive and Hit and Run out in order to be a threat next turn as well. It doesn’t work out that way, but it does bring his deathstar away from my main force.

I’m now hoping for the game to finish early. Opponent makes a mistake here on turn 5, going forward with the main unit while splitting Cypher and a Librarian to grab his two backfield objectives, playing for turns 6 and 7. This means his star no longer has Hit and Run, which I capitalise on by assaulting my Chapter Master into one side, away from as many AP2 attacks as possible, in order to draw the unit away from my objectives and stop it killing anything else in his turn. I also jump both Stormtalons into Cypher, one in Hover mode – he’s wounded from shooting earlier, so I’ve decent odds of the kill even through 2+ cover; he only has to fail one missile save or two saves overall from 10 shots at BS5 wounding on 2s, many of them twinlinked. Sadly, he survives – but then fails to kill my Stormtalon with the return attack, leaving me contesting that objective.

Game then ends.

I should call out some excellent sportsmanship from my opponent here – I moved a unit of bikes over to grab one of my Crusade objectives, aiming to boost onto it so the other unit holding it previously could throw a longrange multimelta shot and some boltguns at his Librarian, then totally forgot to boost. I noticed this, basically facepalmed at my idiocy, then opponent said “4+ you can do it anyway”. I got the 4+ and the objective – thank you Joel, you are an absolute gentleman.

(A note on alternate play – if he splits a Librarian not Cypher, I probably still assault with the Chapter Master, I just have to sacrifice a few more units/killpoints to block his Hit and Run move. I should therefore be able to keep him off the objectives this way, given the stuff holding them is Objective Secured so he can’t just boost a bike librarian to contest.)

Ends up 14-6 to me, which I’ll take against an armylist that hard!

Final Results

So, I ended with 70 battle points – given how results clump in the middle, I’m expecting a vaguely decent result here. 44 players at the event, I figure I can’t get top 10 with that score, but optimistically make a guess of 13th. Final result?

11th place! Pretty happy with that, for my first time at a 40k tournament bigger than the 20-player offerings at my local store (Outpost in Sheffield). Especially since the players I lost to – Chewie and Alex – came 2nd and 1st respectively!

The army performed well for me. I gather bikes aren’t top tier anymore, but they aren’t to be underestimated either. Objective Secured really came through for me all weekend, and I felt that in at least a few of the games I was playing really well. I also made mistakes, misread matchups and generally messed up here and there, but see under first time. I’ll learn! The army is flexible and tough – the bike squads often survive as battered remnants and win me the game late, while I’m ok to use them to fight midgame. A pure MSU, I suspect, can’t quite do the same flexible style of play – the units are just too fragile.

It felt a bit frustrating playing against so much stuff I just couldn’t hurt – the game feels quite “broken” right now – but I’m glad that playing to objectives can work out against it. That said, I won game 1 due to lots of luck, and game 6 could easily have gone very wrong. Game 5 I might have had a chance with better play, at least to pull a small/medium loss not a wipeout. This is the main thing really – so much of the time I felt I just couldn’t actually fight the opposing army, so was trying desperately to control their movement and not get wiped out too quickly. I quite enjoyed the tactical (and strategic) challenge; but I don’t know if I’d get bored of it longterm, and I suspect players with less of an analytical mindset might get put off by it.

MVPs: most of the army – it all worked together synergistically to do a job. I needed the tooled command squad/character unit to let me nulldeploy/project threat, and the gravs to kill hard targets and distract my opponent, so that the troop bikers could score objectives safely.

LVPs: my Orbital Bombardment. Didn’t kill a single model all weekend. Also my hangover on Sunday.

Changes to the army? I’m not entirely sure. Some reserve manipulation would be nice – I’ve been playing about with Lias Issodon for a while, but haven’t quite got a list to click together yet. The next event I’m thinking of is 1850, apparently, so a Damocles Command Rhino might seem like a decent option – the second Bombardment is useful for making deathstars reluctant to give me first turn.

I’ve also considered replacing both Stormtalons – and a few of the extra points – with a Culexus in a Stormraven. While even with the Culexus turning off Invisibility I probably can’t kill a wolfstar, certainly not before I get charged by stuff given my 18” grav range, the threat of it makes those units a lot more nervous, and I can control their movement – either by just threat of where the bubble-of-anti-psychic flier goes, or by limiting their ability to Gate, and causing them to risk Perils. It can also carry scouts if I take any, and deliver backfield scorers late game to take objectives on the ground; and it’s tougher vs scatterbikes and Flyrants, and has decent firepower, inclusing a useful-against-Knights multimelta.

I’ve also considered a Caestus for the same job, but it doesn’t do anti-flier/FMC work in the same way. The Fire Raptor seems amazing, and a good use of the points, but doesn’t carry a Culexus (who might be getting overly cute anyway, but I do want to test).

I do need something to keep threatening objectives in the backfield vs the deathstars, that can jump over them, to prevent just getting hemmed in. Tempted by Scouts in Landspeeder Storms – but it’s just fitting the points.

I also need to not over-fixate on the deathstars, even though 3-source events apparently have more and nastier of them, but also make sure I can handle the likes of Eldar, Nids, Decurion and so on. I gather Wraiths are a right pain – the chapter master unit helps, but isn’t enough in some cases, I suspect.

Oh, if I can find points at all, in events where I’d expect more Knights, I’d run meltabombs on at least some of the command squads. One of them needs Storm Shields too – makes it a lot more effective for the battlefield role I was using the character-laden unit for. It’s just finding the points for all this! Don’t want to drop units; can drop one attack bike, but wouldn’t want to lose more than that – I really like them. Going up to 1850 helps a lot, and the stormtalons were merely OK, but…

Many thoughts to work through!

Overall, I had a brilliant time, and intend to be back for more events. I’m not 100% sure I’m sold on the game yet, but I’ll give it more changes, and can definitely feel the enthusiasm building. Social side definitely helped, as did the people.

Hope readers have enjoyed!

Thanks for the report and analysis! I'm a casual scars bike player, and I appreciate reports where I get to see similar lists in action. Nice to see a mono-source bike army can still play the game!

You say you haven't upgraded much since 4th, but what do you think about:

A) Thunderfire cannons. Good horde control, and ability to grant bikes squads a 3+ cover in ruins without jinking.

B) A Bike Librarian Conclave. I'm testing one out now. The combo of prescience/shrouding/spirit leach worked wonders for me.

Nice report and thanks for sharing, but I think I would rather hit my hand with a hammer than play against any of those armies.

Well played and very detailed report. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

Thanks for the comments everyone, always good to know one's work is appreciated :-)

As for hammers, well, each to their own - tough lists, I'm sure, but my army played at least approximately a "conventional" game - using very good but not outright broken units - and managed to holds its own. I had fun, which is what matters to me - hopefully my opponents did too.

On thunderfire cannons: I keep being tempted, though £36/model puts me off slightly! As you say, bolster defences is pretty significant for preventing a t1 requirement to jink, and for resisting alphastrikes. The reach is nice too - I might give one or two a trial and see. (I've also considered Lias Issodon + a unit of 3 as a backfield deployment, with rest of army reserved - but I think the chaptermaster-led WS unit adds more flexibility to the army. Not yet fully convinced either way, I went the way I did basically entirely due to cost concerns, £100 is a lot to test something!)

On librarian conclaves: my worry is that this encourages one to go further down the deathstar route, at which point one ends up with my round 2 opponent's list. If I don't go that far, then I have a worse deathstar and the rest of my army is too fragile and gets shot off the table. Unlike the fullon deathstars, a command squad + librarius conclave is vulnerable to being caught out by a serious alphastrike, or to Culexus tricks, or so on - though you do gain in extra scoring units. It's a balance, and I'm not sure where it falls; is midsize-deathstar just more vulnerable than a fullon one for little gain?

I suspect it is - against another deathstar you have too few units to play as I did here, but enough that they can hit and run out of my deathstar and clean up killpoints from multiassaulting support units. Whereas, playing vs a shooty or MSU army, they just get extra killpoints from my supporting cast and then win on objectives.

Hah poor Will, never has an luck at tournaments.

Nice list mate but have you thought about a Culexus in a drop pod. I mean in my experience it helps counter the psychic heavy death stars/ demon lists.

As for Alpha strikers there's a few methods to get round them, Void shield generators, red hunter Cents in a bastion. Although if you really want something tough ally in Iron hands, chapter master with 3+ feel no pain and 4+ for the command squad.

 iddy00711 wrote:

As for Alpha strikers there's a few methods to get round them, Void shield generators, red hunter Cents in a bastion. Although if you really want something tough ally in an Iron hands chapter master for your 3+ feel no pain and 4+ for the command squad.

Unless he runs alone he's losing both chapter traits for the unit with the CM

Culexus in pod I considered, but my issue is that if going first they don't have powers up anyway, if going second it's often difficult to set up for a solid strike on the Invisible unit - which is often very tough anyway, with Cypher, cover/jink, and excellent saves.

Stormraven lets me more consistently turn off their tricks - once podded on t1, the Culexus is very likely to be killed.

 Saber wrote:
Nice report and thanks for sharing, but I think I would rather hit my hand with a hammer than play against any of those armies.

Agreed!

Nice report, and it looks like all the guys at the tournament play at roughly the same power level and 'tier' of competitiveness, so all things seemed balanced.

But if I brought any of my armies to this, I may as well not bother deploying such is the cheese on show! Great report, never going there!!

You do know that the culexus cancels blessing and maledictions when he's within 12"? So he can take away invisibility off a unit and makes it much harder for the unit to cast. Plus his shooting attack is pretty vicious.

If youre worried about keeping him alive, just infiltrate him beyond some terrain

I'm more worried about being assaulted by, eg, wolfstars, than I am about its being shot.

As you say, though, a decent infiltrate can at least make them expose themselves for a turn if they want the Culexus dead / to enter the midfield. It's just that the one turn of fire you get out of it probably still doesn't dent them enough, and then with only 18" range on grav you get multiassaulted to death.

Kremlin - great report. And congrats on your achievements, particularly considering your first event. I recognise a few names of the players you were against from previous 40k tournies I've been to, seemed a competitive field.

You seem to have put some lateral thought into your tactics and strategy too, which came across in your report. Well,, perhaps not against the Eldar with your Leroy Jenkins smash em' mantra!

And I also know the pain of playing what you feel is becoming a a dated army at these events - my poor Tau are about to be stomped at the GT and Rapid Fire, unless the new book comes out and saves me with the next big thing

It's fine, just take a Tau'nar...