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This past weekend was one of the two big 40K tournaments in Denver/CO, Genghis Con. It was 1750, 3 round tournament. I decided to bring my Iron Hands army that I've been spending the last month or so building (note it was completely painted in the two weeks leading up to the tournament!). I've got lots of pictures, but they'll have to wait until I get home.

MotF, Conversion Beamer
Dread, Plasma Cannon x2
Dread, multimelta x2
Ironclad, melta/heavy flamer x2
10 Tactical Squad, missile launcher, flamer, Razorback x3
Landspeeder, Typhoon missile launcher, heavy bolter x3



Yes, that's 6 dreadnoughts. I lost track of how many people came up to the army and said, "Oh, Black Templars!" Probably around 8 or so.

The first game I was matched up against an older gentleman, playing Imperial Guard. Well, kind of - he was using Squats as "counts-as" imperial guard! His army was more or less the following:
(light infantry, sharpshooters)
HSO, command squad with meltagun, lascannon, medic, standard
lascannon team
autocannon team
heavy bolter team
special weapons team with a demo charge
10 Ratling snipers
2 platoons, each with two squads melta/lascannon and a 6-man remnant squad with (I think) flamer, maybe lascannon too (need to recheck list)
2 LRMBT, each with lascannon/HB sponsons and a HK missile.

The mission was 5 objectives, one automatically placed in the center and the other 4 placed by the players. To win one needed to actually claim them with Troops models, regardless of the state of the opponent's army. Deployment was pitched battle. My opponent chose the side of the board with some hedges and other smaller terrain, closer to most of the objectives, and placed all his infantry within more or less one half of the board. They ended up clumped pretty close together. The two LRMBTs went to their right, in the center of the board. I combat-squaded, placed two of my heavy combat squads in buildings on the same side as his infantry, the third and the MotF went to some ruins on the far left. The Razorbacks were spread out right, middle right, and middle left to make dashes for objectives. The dreads more or less did the same, with the PC dreads on the far right, the Ironclads in the middle-right, and the multi-melta dreads on the middle-left, across from the tanks. Two of the Typhoons hid behind buildings on the right, while the third was deployed wide left to get side-shots on the LRs. After the game, we discovered he had forgotten to deploy his autocannon unit, so they played no role in the battle.

He had won the roll for deployment, and my attempt to seize the initiative failed, so he started off the game. And start he did, with some of the worst luck I'd seen in a while. The majority of his lascannons he fired at the Razorbacks, yet he missed with nearly all of them! Those that got through were foiled by cover saves. Even the HK missiles did nothing. Finally, one of the LRMBT lascannons blew up my Razorback on the middle-left, and the squad piled out minus one casualty. My first turn had much better luck. All 6 dreads moved up and ran forward, averaging about 10" or so. The typhoons behind the buildings popped into LOS to take some shots, while the third moved up to get a side shot. The Razorbacks zoomed forward about 12" and hid behind dreads (having been deployed behind them to start) or natural ruins cover. My shooting phase was much more eventful, taking out the lascannon anti-tank squad and several incidentals from other squads with templates. Perhaps bigger was the MotF destroying a LRMBT with his conversion beamer, and the other being destroyed by krak missiles to the side armor from the typhoon (6 to pen, 6 to damage!). I definitely breathed easier after that!

His turn comes, and I realize that smoke on the dreads might have been a good idea, but too late now. Fortunately, he's still focused on the Razorbacks and devotes most of his fire to them. This time he's a bit more lucky, but still does nothing more than stun one and shake and destroy the weapon of another. No shooting goes to the dreadnoughts! He also stuns one Typhoon and blows up another. My turn comes around, and the far left tac squad advances along with the squad whose Razorback got blown up, to get ready to claim the two objectives on that side of the board in a couple turns. Since the tanks blew and all his infantry are on the far right, they're pretty much unmolested. Meanwhile on the right the dreads advance and run again, 4 getting within a few inches of his lines, ready to charge in (the multimelta dreads being a bit out of place now that the tanks are gone). This time, 3 pop smoke, while one Ironclad roasts a few guys with his heavy flamer and meltagun. The Razorback squad on the far right that can still move zooms up to a few inches from his lines and pops out the back where they can't be seen - better to wait a turn and fire/assault, rather than just fire and then get shot. Again casualties on his line are pretty bad, wiping out the special weapons team, the heavy bolter team, and doing damage to some line squads and the command platoon. Several turn to break (including the command squad!) yet the reroll from the standard keeps them around.

Turn three, and he's in serious trouble. Several units move up to get within melta range, though some stay stationary to fire their lascannons. Finally he starts shooting at the dreads, but it's too little too late. Smoke and poor aim foils most of his shots. One melta hits the Ironclad without smoke, yet he rolls a 1 which results in shaken (stunned -> extra armor). When his turn ends my opponent concedes and gives me full points. It was really just a bad game for him, coupled with luck not being on his side at all. But he was a wonderful opponent, and a pleasure to talk to both during and after the game. He even gave me a squat from his collection after the game to keep!

Game 2 was against a Daemons army, played by a rather strong player. Unfortunately for him, my army is a PITA for Daemons to play against, given all its mechanization. His list was as follows:

Bloodthirster, stock
5 Bloodcrushers, Icon
6 Flamers
13 Horrors, Icon, Changeling
10 Horrors
10 Bloodletters
10 Bloodletters
Soulgrinder, phlegm
Soulgrinder, phlegm

I might be missing a few upgrades here and there, but noticeable was his omission of Fury of Khorne on the Letters and Crushers, and no Bolt on his Horrors. Looking over his list I prioritized the Thirster as target #1, the Grinders as #2, and the flamers and Crushers as #3. The Horrors and Letters weren’t going to be significant. Also note that my opponent either forgot or simply chose not to use the Changeling’s ability.

The mission is capture and control with spearhead deployment. A massacre is controlling both objectives and having more KP, a major win is both objectives but less KP, a minor is controlling 1 more objective than the opponent, and a tie is neither controlling more objectives. He wins the roll for deployment and tells me to go first. The objectives are placed more or less at opposite corners of the board, mine to my right. I set up one full squad and the MotF in a building around my objective (a bit of a mistake, I should have combat-squaded them), combat-squaded the other two, with one heavy half going on another building and the second deploying next to the Razorback from the full squad. The dreads and Razorbacks are spread out in a expanding circle, trying to create only difficult places for him to drop. The Typhoons are held in reserve.

My turn one, I move 2 of the Razorbacks forward a bit, spread out a little bit more and advance, still trying to make it tough for him to drop. On his turn he divides his army, with the preferred cohort as the Thirster, both Grinders, the crushers, and a unit of Letters. Unfortunately, he rolls a 1, so he plays it safe with his drops. One unit of horrors (with the changeling) and the letter units drive to the back middle of the board, the second arrives near his back corner destined for objective holding, and the flamers arrive near my board edge but far to my left. All run near or into some sort of cover and spread out decently.

My turn 2, no speeders arrive. The Razorbacks move forward 6, the dreads shuffle around to get good shooting lines. I open fire on his Bloodletters, but thanks to some really good cover saves can only reduce them to 4. On his turn, he rolls for reserves but gets only a single Soulgrinder. This drops in the middle of the board close to my table edge, and fires off a shot that immobilizes one of my Razorbacks. The horrors and remaining bloodletters try to run and hide, but don’t get far.

My turn 3, all three speeders arrive, and I send them to the left side of the board. One lines up for a rear shot at the Grinder, while the other two get ready to shoot some Flamers (who are conveniently bunched up). The forward mobile Razorback continues its run forward, while the other mobile Razorback only moves 6. In hindsight, I should have just jetted forward with this one too, trying to make up some time, but oh well. Firepower from dreads, tacticals, and razorbacks kill off the bloodletters and do a few casualties to the left horrors. One Typhoon shoots at the landed Grinder and immobilizes it and destroys its mawcannon, so I don’t worry about it anymore. The other two speeders shoot at the Flamers, but some bad dice for me and hot for my opponent means that only 4 of the 6 are killed! On his turn his reserves continue to hate him and only the Crushers and second squad of Bloodletters arrive. The Crushers are placed a little back from the middle of the table towards his objective and land well, while the Bloodletters arrive toward his back table edge, also near his objective. At this point, my opponent commented that he was pretty much playing for a draw here, and really I couldn’t blame him. His Changeling horrors take refuge mostly behind a building. The Flamers move to flame the Typhoons that shot them while the horrors on that side shoot at the Typhoon that shot the Grinder. In the most ridiculous rolling of 5s and 6s I’ve seen in a while, the Flamers glance both speeders twice, strip one of both its weapons and take off the TML and immobilize the second. Meanwhile, the Horrors stun the third Typhoon.

My 4th turn, and I realize I need to really get my Razorbacks over to his objective. Unfortunately I need to drive one through a forest to get there, and of course it immobilizes itself. The last one, I realize, is too far away even if the game goes to 7. So it comes down to the speeders to possibly contest for a minor win. The weaponless speeder runs away from the Flamers, while the rest of the army contracts back around my objective, trying to again eliminate good places to drop. Shooting downs a Crusher, a melta shot blows up the immobilized Grinder, while the immobilized speeder shoots at the Flamers but does nothing. A couple more horrors are killed, as are a couple of bloodletters. His fourth turn, the Thirster still refuses to show! Though the second Grinder does come in. He gets placed near his board edge to my right off the Horror’s icon, and promptly immobilizes one of my multimelta dreads. The crushers go and destroy the stunned speeder, while the Flamers try to flame the mobile speeder but only cause it to be shaken.

Turn 5, the mobile speeder zooms to the center of the board, but needs to go in the forest to have a chance at reaching his objective next turn. Thankfully it doesn’t crash. I continue to tighten up around my objective, with one Ironclad going after the still-mobile Grinder. I kill a few Horrors from near his objective, and do another wound on a Crusher. His turn 5, the Thirster comes in automatically. He tries to DS it within 3” of my objective, surrounded by my men. If he pulled it off it might work, but it’d be close. Unfortunately, he scatters into a Razorback and rolls a 1 on the mishap table. Ooops. The Crushers go and munch the immobilized speeder. The game continues to turn 6, but the only significant thing is to see if my mobile speeder can make it to his objective. It has the mobility to get there, but needs to roll a dangerous terrain check for leaving the forest. What do I roll? A 1, of course. The speeder crashes and we call it a draw.

Kind of a frustrating game overall, I think for both players. He really couldn’t do much to my army, especially after his wrong group came in and his reserve rolls were so bad, and pretty much played for the draw after turn 1 or 2. While my army was suited to fight his, I just couldn’t cause enough damage and didn’t have quite enough mobile elements to get to his objective.

In game 3, last game of the tournament, I was paired up against a Speed Freaks Ork army. The mission was annihilation, though with a modified KP rule: whoever killed the larger percentage of KP from the opponent’s army took the victory, rather than strict KP majority. Of course, we both had 16 KP in our armies, so that bit was moot. His list was, as I remember it:

Warboss, power claw, cybork, attack squig
BigMek, KFF, eavy armor
8 Nobs, eavy armor, cybork, 5 big choppas, painboy, 2 powerklaws, Waagh banner
12 Trukk boyz, sluggas, nob with powerklaw and bosspole, Trukk with big shootas and no upgrades x 4
18 Boyz, nob with power klaw and bosspole
Deffkopta with rokkit and buzzsaw x2
Battlewagon with reinforced ram, red paint job, grot riggers, 4 big shootas x2

Setup was Dawn of War. He placed two Trukk boyz squads and their vehicles (which, in retrospect, I let him put the extra unit on the table, should have just been boyz and a trukk) about 18” up to the left of the table, while I deployed the MotF and a Tac squad on a forested hill about 12” up to my right, with a second tac squad on the ground closer to the board edge.

In his first turn, everything moved on the board. The Deffkoptas turboboosted forward 24”, while the trukks already on the table moved forward about 18”, hiding behind a large hill (which did actually block LOS). My turn, everything moves on the board. Two razorbacks zoom forward 12” to block potential assaults against my marine firebase, while the third moves on 6” to fire at some Trukks. Three dreads move on near the firebase, with the third tac squad behind them, while the other 3 move 6” forward in the center. One Typhoon moves out to the left to try to get side/rear shots on the battlewagons, while the other two support in the center. Shooting is sadly mostly uneventful. Despite the fact that we mostly forgot about Night Fight, I was unable to kill either Deffkopta with his ridiculous rolling of 3+ cover saves, and only managed to blow up a single Trukk. As a note, none of his Trukks did anything other than simply get wrecked throughout the whole game.

His turn two, starts to get dangerous. His two closer Trukks both unload their boyz into a couple of regular dreads, while the other two continue to move up. His Deffkoptas are ineffective in shooting, but battlewagon big shootas down a Typhoon. In combat, a Deffkopta fails to damage a razorback, but the Trukk nobz destroy one dread and immobilize and strip off the arms from the second. On my turn, I manage to blow up a Trukks and kill both Deffkoptas with missile launcher/bolter fire. Potshots at the Battlewagons are mostly either ineffective or stopped by the big mek’s KFF. One Ironclad meltas a Trukk and flames over it to hit a Trukk Boyz squad, while the other Ironclad hits the squad directly. It evaporates down to two models, who break and run away. In combat, the Trukk boyz on the other dread manage to kill it, and massacre to my right further into my lines.

Turn three, and things start getting more dangerous. He continues to advance, with another Trukk squad hitting a dreadnought and his battlewagon boyz hitting a tac squad that had rapid-fired a Deffkopta to death last turn. His Nobz and Warboss and Mek continue to stay in their vehicle for now. His shooting is mostly ineffective, but the fresh Trukk boyz kill the other regular dread, while the ones in my backfield assault the Ironclad and Razorback, immobilizing the Razorback but not harming the Ironclad. He squishes a few from the squad. The Battlewagon Boyz kill 4 tac marines for the loss of 2, and I fall back using Combat Tactics and get away, though they run only 3” and he is still close. My turn 3, and I continue to try to hit his Trukks and Battlewagons, but do little. I completely wipe out the battlewagon Boyz in shooting, and kill most of the squad that wrecked my dreadnought. The Ironclad charges the last 3 orks in the squad, but kills only 2, though his PK nob doesn’t hurt it. A plasma cannon dread assaults a Trukk but fails to hit it. My other Ironclad is immobilized, but kills a few more Orks.

Turn 4, and his HQ unit finally disembarks. They charge into my Ironclad fighting the lone Trukk boy Nob and the plasma cannon dreadnought. The Ironclad takes his swings and tries to kill the warboss, rolls a hit, but of course rolls a 1 to wound him. He gets destroyed for his troubles by PK nobz, while the other dread gets immobilized by big choppas. The Trukk boyz fighting the Ironclad finally take some bad luck and end up losing combat and running away. In my turn, I kill enough of them to bring them below half and my opponent takes them off the table. Shooting is still mostly ineffective for me – I even try to kill off that last PK nob from the truck boyz but he makes a lot of cover saves. My tac squads prepare to take a beating. The PC dreadnought tries to kill the warboss again but misses with his attack, and is destroyed. The Nobz consolidate forward.

The game went 7 turns, but at this point there wasn’t much left but mop-up. With 5 of my dreads destroyed and the other immobilized, I had nothing that could stop his HQ squad, which proceeded to eat all 3 tac squads and the MotF. On the other hand, I managed to blow up one of his battlewagons once the big mek was too far away, and he simply didn’t have enough units left to grab all my faster-moving units. In the end, he had the Nobz, the Mek, the Warboss, and a Battlewagon left, while I had two speeders, two razorbacks, and an immobilized Ironclad left, giving me the minor win by 1 point. He did take the secondary objective, though, which was killing the opponent’s highest point unit, one of my tac squads, while I had no real hope of killing his nobz.

In retrospect, I think I was too optimistic about the ability for my Dreads to survive a charge from the Trukk boyz, and thus deployed them too far forward. Having a chance to shoot them first would have changed a lot, I think. Once enough Dreads were down, I had no real hope of stopping the Nobz or the battlewagons.

Before the tournament, I was debating whether or not Typhoons were better in this army than mm/hf speeders. I’m still not entirely decided. I really like the long-range heavy firepower that Typhoons give me, especially with the ability to fire two shots of blast or krak. On the other hand, mobile multimeltas would also help the army out, and heavy flamers are always good. But mm/hf speeders have to operate at a closer range, making it tougher to survive. I’m still not decided. Not sure yet where I finished overall, I suspect within the top 15 or so out of 58, but the full results haven't been posted yet!

Edit: The results have been posted, and indeed I did come in 15th place out of 58. Not shabby, but not as good as I had hoped of course. About 20 points separated me from 1st place, so it was still pretty tight. Here's to the next tournament!

Warmaster's Tzeentch Daemons


The now semi-infamous Nob Biker list


The Squat IG list I faced in the first round


A nicely painted Eldar army, I have a close-up if someone wants to see details


Some impressive Howling Griffons


Light-up Sisters!


Some Nurgle Marines


Nice Necrons - 3 Monoliths!


Nicely painted snow Guard with Inquisition


All Grey Knight army

A few more pics are at my Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/98959305@N00/

Nice report good read, and i love the iron hands theme.

the howling griffons make me wanna get some Mcdonalds.

I have a theory that, as long as you play the Iron Hands, the Ironclads will take over more and more dreads. Like, next tourney you'll go 3 and 3, the one after that 4 Ironclads and 2 normals, until ultimately it's all Ironclads, and the dreaded 6 Ironclad list that everyone thought of when they saw that 'dex is finally a reality.

So are you still happy with them walking or are you thinking of doing some pods. A few in pods would have helped you a lot in the second game.

I talked with your daemon player after the tournament, and said to him now you know why I use tongue and not phlegm on my grinders . Perfect case in point!

I think I'm still pretty happy with them walking. A pod or two might have helped, but maybe not. That was more my own fault in game 2 - I think I got a bit confused in the mission for deployment and a bit distracted during the game. I just don't like the idea of multiples of Dreads being held in reserve, and I actually kind of like them walking around firing at stuff. Plus, pods are expensive both cash and points wise - you'll note that this army list is pretty much as close to bare-minimums as it gets! I mean, the only upgrades in the list are heavy flamers on the Ironclads, plasma cannons on the regular dreads, and the Typhoons. Everything else is pretty stock.

If the Typhoons deep struck in the second game how was the one able to shoot at the grinder the same turn it arrived? Just curious.

G

Green Blow Fly wrote:If the Typhoons deep struck in the second game how was the one able to shoot at the grinder the same turn it arrived? Just curious.

G

Land Speeders are fast vehicles and are therefore able to fire one weapon after having moved at cruising speed. Since deep striking counts as having moved at cruising speed, his Land Speeder was able to fire.

Thanks for the reminder.

G

They didn't deep strike in the second game, actually, they just flew on from my table edge. But yes, because it was fast, they were able to move on 12" and still fire.

Nice report and nice pics.
Good job and congratulations for the placement.

....but....but....according to fluff Iron Hands dont have many dreadnoughts!

Nice army though, good pics and reports!

@Deadshane: Heh, somewhat true. Though it's been many years since the Heresy, one might think that they could easily have built more. It really doesn't follow all of the fluff for Iron Hands (for instance, no second HQ), but it's close enough and I figured anyone who actually knew about their fluff would simply appreciate me making the army!

I was thinking about doing the same thing when I was considering an Iron Hands paintjob for my marines. Those are the comments I heard however. Just joking you dood!

(It IS a big part of the reason I decided that a DIY chapter is more what I'm gonna wanna do though. Noone can throw fluff in your face when YOU'RE the one MAKING up the fluff!)

tzeentchling wrote:
The first game I was matched up against an older gentleman, playing Imperial Guard. Well, kind of - he was using Squats as "counts-as" imperial guard!

ahh I havent heard the name Squats in a long time! I always wanted to field a Squat army but only after they discontinued them

ahh I havent heard the name Squats in a long time! I always wanted to field a Squat army but only after they discontinued them

You like things that have been dead for a while I presume... like this tread

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Thread is being locked due to thread necromancy.