Alright!
AT tournament at Kuopio, Finland 5.-6.10.
I came, I saw, I conquered.
~10 players, five rounds and lots of fun for all even though I might have taken a bit rough list for the occasion given the synergy offered between my strong list, good tactics and somewhat sparse terrain which resulted from larger than expected attendance and stretching to have a fifth table operational. My Legio Favilla, the brown and baroque Ashen Gods in the pictures, took the field by storm and pounded the opposition to dust pretty convincingly. Though the tournament was more for fun and the prize Reaver kit was randomized at the end between all, I did end up getting it anyway for good measure
The event called for a 1750 point list, so I tried out an idea I had been brewing for a while: how about a reliable firebase combined with a mobile hammer for flank attacks to harry the enemy into bad position while they are under an unceasing bombardment that will hit them hard unless they compromise their own maneuver game by spreading out, except if they do that they come to my trap? Suits my fluff and playstyle, check. So, custom legio rules open and let's see how to crack some worlds.
- Splinter Legio (Fortidus) to swap a titan with roles intact for a Warlord lead Venator.
- Elite Magos for some reliability on my Hounds' reactors, because they are going to get hot at the aggressive front lines.
- Warchest (Earthbreaker Missiles) for another tool in the Swiss army titan set, cutting movement in half could be useful in missions like Retrieval or Breakthrough (part of the tournament pack).
- War Doctrine (Quake Shells), as we get 3 command points I needed this for one cheaper for the master plan to go off. The other two points will then go to Strafing Run so that every turn opens with a massive steel rain on the opposing side.
Basically I took two Venators, one lead by a melta-Reaver pushing a pincer move with a squadron of two aggressive forward Hounds (twinfeeeeernoooo, baby!) while the other had a Mori/Belicosa Warlord in the lead to lend artillery support from the edge of the battlefield in maniple with two separate Hounds that roam the field further up stripping shields and giving the Lord a bunch of opportunistic extra shots with the big guns, especially Quake. Okay, one was a double turbolaser doggie Shieldbaning last shields off here and there.
Here's the synergy:
Strafing Run causes d3 hits on every unit in a 4" wide line, which is rather nasty if one is infamous for rolling high. This combines with Quake Shells, that also tickle some shields here and there but more importantly they push engines around regardless of shields falling or not. That is rather strong and caused horrible damage on more than one list that did not realize the danger in their deployment, because Collisions are a thing. This barrage, which to reiterate, drops down every turn, taxes shields pretty nicely and allows the roaming Hounds to more easily activate their leaders' Venator abilities time and again without overreaching themselves. Melta, Belicosa and Mori shots were flying often enough that any slip in the defences was quickly exploited to deadly effect. It also helped that because I almost always agressively pushed my squadroned Hound pair to the fore, they had to be focused on and soaked fire for two or three turns before turning to fireballs which left my Reaver and Warlord almost untouched for most of the time, giving them time to brutalize their intended targets. If sprung on an unexpecting opponent or a newer player, this can snowball.
First game vs. Mortis, the Quakes smacked his Warlord so that it crushed all his Cerastuses to death and caused havoc in general to the extent that they conceded the game before turn two after some good rolling saw me almost cripple a Warhound in addition. Well, got time to take photos.
Second game vs. Fureans with lots of big guns but not that much volume to break shields. They focused my Warlord to death (only time in the tournee), but their Fortis maniple lost most of its benefits under the quake shelling and was eventually annihilated. Twinferno Hound licked their Warlord to flaming ruin, woo!
Third match vs. Gryphonicus that had taken only heavy engines, quickly reduced to a survival game as their forward Reavers came too close on Full Stride and my Hounds got the pounce to kill both. Their Warlords did stand until the end, though.
Fourth vs. Fortidus proper, again a match I'd basically won from turn one because Warlord and Reaver would have annihilated each other through double collisions but we agreed on the spot to let quake shell results of "Hit" stay still and rather have a good game. And it was, the one I enjoyed the most as it got tough when his 24" wide Dangerous Terrain minefields basically stopped my Hounds in their tracks and immobilized my midfield quite hard (and literally, there were lots of leg injuries in the midfield full of burning Hounds biggrin.png). It was nominally a Retrieval scenario for both, but by turn three it was clear NOBODY was going to get it off from the blazing inferno that was raging in the middle and it got quite close by kill point secondaries, but as his Warlord was a smidge too close for his carapace lasers he could not finish off my Reaver and the Ashen Gods carried the day. This game is the one on the snow table with everything burning at the Fortidus' Warlord's feet.
Final game vs. Ignatum, custom rules for extra repairs, extra shots and an overcharged +4 plasma weapon. The original plan worked like a charm: artillery Warlord took position and others maneuvered so the enemy was stuck in its fire arcs, bombs rained from the sky and Hounds took remaining shields down effectively enough that the Mori cannon punched their Reaver to its death against the Warlord behind it. On turn two there was a memorable nuclear blast on the left flank as I accidentally shot my own critically injured Hound to death, which exploded and killed the shooter, which exploded and killed the enemy Hound near it, which exploded and caused the imminent destruction of their Warlord behind it and... By turn three, they had a single remaining Lord on the field. The mission was to have lots of Scale near the center of the field, and even though I already had more Scale in my remaining Warhounds there, as a last act of spite my Warlord managed to punt theirs out of the scoring range with its Mori cannon, because of course it did. Brutality.
Immense fun, good people, awesome venue. If you're somehow stuck in Kuopio, check them out at the Bunker 34 smile.png
~50 pictures here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/H7qXX15gqgqbhnWe9
