Drove down to Totalcon yesterday for a
NOVA qualifier that I've been to the last few years & is run by a bunch of really nice guys. The
40k part of Totalcon is always very laid back & relaxed despite it being a
NOVA qualifier. This year was a little screwed up due to New England weather &
LVO happening on the same weekend. And there was another
40k tournament about 2 hours north that I suspect drew some more players. In short, I thought I had a chance at doing well because the really good players were away at
LVO or this other tournament. I would never be able to go to
NOVA so I wasn't concerned with winning a ticket, I just wanted to have a fighting chance at winning some games.
Turns out that the impending snow storm, and the other two tournaments, left us with only three players and a ringer. And the other two players had each only played a handful of 7th edition. We decided to just play games without the
NOVA missions because none of us planned on going to
NOVA anyway; we just wanted to roll dice. So any stress I had had was all for naught.
I had changed my Templecon list
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/635197.page to deal with Invis & flyers by adding the Saint Tylus formation of Chaplain Cassius, 4 Tyrannic War vets, and two Stormtalons. And I added an Aegis Defence Line with Quad gun to keep my flyers alive. My thought was that the Chaplain's Zealot, Fearless, & twin linked shooting from the Stormtalons would give me a little edge over invis armies &
FMC like the first & last lists I played against at Templecon.
My list:
ThunderLord with Krakensword & shield + 1 wolf
ThunderLeader with
PF & shield + 2 wolves
ThunderLeader with
PF & shield + 1 wolf
2 Iron Priests with
TH. No cyberwolves because I'm too lazy to differentiate between 4+ & 6+ saves on Fenrisian Wolves. And I want my characters in challenges because I'm using the Champions of Fenris supplement.
1 Unit of
TWC,
PF &
SS,
WC &
SS, Chainsword &
SS
Stormwolf with
MM & Lascannons
Aegis Defence Line with Quad gun
Saint Tylus formation: Chaplain Cassius, 4 Tyrannic War vets & a pair of infiltrating Stormtalons (formation perk)
Game 1
My first game was against Mike who I've played before & is one of the nicest guys I've ever played. He ran Astra Militarum & I think his list was:
Creed
two command squads with a Master of Ordnance in each
two platoons, maybe even three with a mix of lascannons & auto cannons
Aegis Defense Line with Comms Relay
Leman Russ
Leman Russ Demolisher
two Chimeras with vets?
two Vendettas with vets, one with Outflank because of Mike's warlord trait
one Valkryie with vets
We played the D3+2 objectives with Dawn of War Deployment. I had first turn.
Turn 1
Mike deployed his Demolisher in an odd way that I assumed was some sort of trick, but I knew the Strength 10 cannon was a threat to my T5
TWC so I infiltrated both Stormtalons way over to the right. He failed to seize initiative.
The Stormtalons immediately went after the Demolisher's RA11 & the first Stormtalon got wicked lucky knocking off three hull points. I don't know why he had deployed it sideways, but I figured he knew something I didn't. In any case, getting rid of the S10 pie plate & getting First Blood was worth it.
The rest of my army just ran up & positioned as many Fenrisian Wolves as it could in cover. Cassius tagged along to supply his morale bonus. Mike's first turn was basically a mess of Str3 lasguns against T5 Thunderwolves. He shot up the Quad gun ASAP to help out his fliers. Leman Russ killed some puppies.
Turn 2
My Stormwolf came on and killed both Chimeras with its Power of the Machine spirit. Each exploded killing some guys inside. Both units fell back. Everything else moved up. One Iron Priest broke left to deal with the vets from the Chimeras. One Stormtalon flew off the board while I left the other to bait him. I tried to multi charge three squads, but could only reach one that I wiped.
Bottom of turn 2
Mike's fliers all came on & he deep struck two units out to lay the hurt on my
TWC.
But then his luck went sideways.
While dropping Master of Ordance, Valkyrie & battle cannon blasts on the
TWC, they scattered onto each of the squads he had just grav-shooted in.
Mike's shooting killed off the
TWC unit, but the 4 characters survived.
Turn 3
The
TWC & characters did their Voltron thing & assaulting anything squishy.
We had a crazy dog fight in the sky with our 6 flyers. Lots of jinking & twin linked shooting. The close proximity ultimately gave my Multimeltas the advantage.
Ultimately I won the air battle & the T5 storm-shielded wolves were just too much for the
IG ground troops.
Mike conceded in the end. It was a fun game, but probably more fun for me than he.
Game 2
My second game was against Steve and, like Mike, he has only played a few games of 7th edition. But unlike Mike, Steve did not have a codex or rulebook (or data slate for his assassin.) I think he had the codex on a laptop, but I never saw him bring it up on the screen. He made his army list using the tournament organizer's Army Builder, but much of the specifics were hand written in the margins. I played Steve last year & it was a teacher/learner game last year. I don't think he played much since. This was a difficult game because with only three people at the tournament, we needed every player & I don't think its the organizers' job to teach people how to play. The ringer did play Steve game 1 in order to help him learn, but it wasn't enough. So we did the best we could, but I was running a list that I expected to face "
NOVA-qualifier" opponents with & Steve was playing:
Yarrick
4 Ogryns in a Chimera
3 squads of vets
3 Leman Russ
2 Valkyries with vets inside
Vindicare assassin… with no rules other than the bare minimum that Army Builder has
We used the same Mission rules & deployment as his first game in order to help him out. The white index cards are the objectives. I hid my Aegis Defense Line behind the big hill in the middle so it only had line of sight on his fliers.
He infiltrated his assassin behind my lines, but with no line of sight on the Space Marines with the Quad gun.
Turn 1
Steve had first turn & I failed to seize. First thing he did was immobilize his left side Leman Russ in terrain which I thought Leman Russ ignore terrain or something, but without his codex we couldn't figure it out. His other two tanks blasted the
TWC, killing some Fenrisian wolves. He moved the Chimera 12 inches straight at me. The four Ogryns were taking up the troop capacity while Yarrick was running alongside.
Bottom of Turn 1
I ran the
TWC straight up the side of the hill towards the Chimera. One Wolf Lord ran west to deal with the assassin. The storm talons flew over the Leman Russes in order to turret fire their rear armor. I thought about shooting Yarrick, but getting First Blood & Warlord against a new player that easily would have been too much. The
TWC assaulted the Chimera & blew it up.
Turn 2
Yarrick joined the Ogryns. His Valkyries both came on. One unit tried to deep strike out, but he tried to deep strike them in a little space & they scattered. Then he rolled a 1 on the mishap chart. During the shooting phase, Steve unloaded pretty much everything at the
TWC killing off four and all the puppies. The Ogryns couldn't assault the
TWC because the Chimera didn't have an assault ramp.
Bottom of Turn 2
My Stormtalons flew off the board edge. My Stormwolf came on & shot at the front Valkyrie which is hard to tell where it is, but it blew up & that is where the large blast template is here. The
TWC assaulted the Ogryns and Yarrick. Yarrick died.
Turn 3
Yarrick got back up and assaulted the
TWC. Shooting wasn't very effective.
Bottom of turn 3
Storm talons came back on & shot up his centrally located squad. My single Mounted Battle Leader assaulted his assassin. That assault lasted for a few turns because he rolled his 4++ like a boss, but ultimately the assassin died. I feel like the assassin should be better in assault, but Steve didn't have the dateslate. My Stormwolf flew west & killed the immobilized Leman Russ which blew up & killed some guys around it. One Thunderwolf battle leader broke off from the group and assaulted another Leman Russ. Yarrick died in combat.
Turn 4
Yarrick got back up and assaulted Cassius & the Iron Priest. He died again. Steve flew his last Valkyrie off the table edge. Shooting was minimal.
Bottom of turn 4
My Wolf Lord moved east & assaulted his eastern squad. They fell back, but I could not catch them. The Iron Priest, Cassius & Wolf Guard Battle Leader mopped up everything else.
Turn 5
Not pictured, but his Valkryie came back on & dropped off the last squad. They shot at the WolfLord. Yarrick died for the last time.
Bottom of Turn 5 & turn 6
My fliers killed his flier. I forget how, but I think his unit that came out of the Valkyrie shot or overwatched my WolfLord to death. Steve scored Warlord, but by then that was the only squad left & I was claiming all four objectives. We rolled & the game ended.
This game was a tough game for Steve because without a rulebook or experience, there are so many details to
40k that add up to make a competitive or fun game.
The weather was getting bad at this point so the tournament ended after two games. I was happy to head home after and beat the weather.
Tournament Summary & List Analysis
Goals:
1. Find a way to deal with Invis, Flyers, & AdLance. Didn't really happen because I only played 2 people who were casual players. I was happy with how my list dealt with all the Vendettas & Valkyries.
Units:
Wolf Lord, 2 Battle Leaders & Iron Priests on Thunderwolves: A
Great for breaking off & hunting small squads of Astra Militarum. Hammer of Wraths consistently killed squad leaders preventing me from getting preferred enemy for challenges, but no big deal. One highlight was using the small S3 grenade blast on T3 guardsmen. I did that about 10 times over the course of 2 games. In game 1, my warlord trait was to master-craft a weapon, but my warlord's relic is already master-crafted so I master crafted the grenade. Don't know if that's legal, but it was funny.
One unit of TWC A
One unit was all I needed, but hard to tell.
Stormwolf A
Multimeltas won the dogfight game 1
Saint Tylus formation of Chaplain Cassius, Tyr War vets, & 2 Stormtalons A
If not for having three flyers (and the Aegis' Quad Gun), I would have struggled to deal with all the Vendettas & Valkyries. Infiltrating Stormtalons helped with First Blood which my Templecon list would struggle to get. But different opponents have different ways to deal with them & the Stormtalons start our hovering so if I did not go first, their 2 HPs wouldn't last long even with jink.
Cassius auto passing morale & Zealot is nice, but I wonder if the Rune Priest prescience wouldn't be better.
Future Changes to List
Compare Cassius to Rune Priest with prescience. Run the math on Zealot & Twin-linked weapons on Invis Centstar or Tau.
