So I participated in the Iron Halo
GT in Oklahoma last month in July and it was a blast. This was my first
GT and the organizer/venue/other players made it a fantastic weekend. I will put my list below and then a quick highlight from each matchup:
CAD:
Farseer - spear (runes of fate)
Farseer - bike, spear (telepathy)
5 Scatter bikes
5 wraithguard - d-scythes (wave serpent - bright lances, holo fields & cannon)
2 vypers
5 rangers
10 guardians w/starcannon
Aspect Host: (+1
BS)
5 Dragons - exarch w/pike (wave serpent - starcannons, holo fields & cannon)
5 Reapers - exarch, all starshot + starswarm
5 Spiders - exarch
LoW:
Wraithknight - 2x heavy wraithcannons, 2x scatter lasers
So I had playtested a couple different variations of this list and settled here, with the cannons on the wraithknight. I had notice the ITC had changed the ranged D to work better and I hadn't really been digging the sword/board combo on the WK. Here is a quick synopsis of my 6 rounds (I apologize for not having lists...):
Round 1: Khorne Demonkin
So this was a very good matchup for me. While he is very assaulty, he didn't have my staying power. I went second, with just him moving during his turn. He had 2 bloodthirsters, 2 khornedog units, 2 maulerfiends, 2 bike squads (matched up with the dogs for the gorepack I'm pretty sure) and then 2 units of blood letters deep striking. Once it was my turn I just started picking targets, there were plenty. He got close enough for me to get the scythes out and flame some khorne dogs, I used the reapers/WK/wave serpents to kill both maulerfiends (I know what those things to to everyone in combat) and I was on my way. The khorne dog unit actually managed to get into combat through my d-strength wall of flame and they were locked for 2 turns which actually wasn't a terrible thing. The WK was MVP this game for sure. In 1 turn he killed a unit of dogs in shooting, finished a maulerfiend in shooting and then stomped another unit of dogs out in assault. The next turn he stomped out a bloodthirster...my dice were crazy good this game...combined with his inability to roll anything but 1's it was a rout. He failed a 3" charge with a bloodthirster that would have killed my reapers and footseer. One of those games...
WIN 11 points
Round 2: Eldar/Harlequins
This mission, being kill points, was a terrible matchup for me and I ended up going 2nd, which just compounded the pain. He had brought guardian battlehost + a harlie force with 5 skyweavers rocking shuriken cannons in 1 units. My only unit who could touch them was the reapers. Guess what died first. I was tabled turn 5. Really not a lot of highlights here other than I did manage to kill his WK...woohoo.
LOSS 0 points
Round 3: War Convocation (really stupid to be able to bring a 2410 list to a 1850 tournament...)
This was the relic and I should have been more aggressive getting the bikes up to snag it, but he had first turn, and a culexus assassin guarding the relic. He also had a pod full of plasma wielding vanguard coming down top of 1...fun stuff. It was hammer & anvil, so I really made his 2 units of grav kataphrons useless until turns 4+ due to good positioning. We were both only really scoring 1 maelstrom point a turn, so even there and the whole game boiled down to the last round when I had gotten my spiders onto the relic on my turn. If they could survive his turn in tact I had the game won. He proceeds to make an 11" charge with his knight against my spiders, slaughter them, and the relic was dropped onto the ground. I managed to kill his knight, infiltrators, rustalkers, vanguard, all his dark angels (5
tac marines, libby, rhino & pod) and his culexus, but we tied straight up the board. It left a sour taste in my mouth after being so close to a victory.
TIE 7 points
So end of day 1 I was 1-1-1, which was pretty good. I should have set a goal for myself (a concrete one) as to what record I wanted, but in my head I just wanted more wins than losses, which I was on track for. Kind of irked at myself for letting that charge "spoil" my day 1 though. My opponent was a great guy and had supplied all the markers for the tournament. Battle Cap Markers. Look em up, they're sick.
Going into day 2 I was like 19th out of 40 in rankings, ok with being in the top half, but wanting to do better.
Round 4: Tyranids
I came into this game all wrong. I let old stereotypes (nids suck) ruin this one for me. I underestimated his list completely. Now, the fact that there wasn't much terrain on the table and specific bad dice rolls compounded the issue. Starting right off the bat on turn 1. One of his flying hive tyrants casts warp blast (I don't deny) on my scythes serpent. I figure with my serpent shield I'll lower it down and move on. I roll a
for my shield roll and he rolls a
for his damage table roll and right at this point my attitude probably cost me the game. Still carrying over the frustration of that knight's 11" charge, now this terrible stroke of luck puts my out of sorts. I will say that his list was a pretty solid counter to mine. Going first helped him a lot too. That pod of 20 gaunts shooting 60 shots when they land is brutal. The scythes were dead before they could do anything, and even towards the end when I was trying to play to the mission to score points, I was done.
LOSS 0 points
Round 5: Wolves (T-wolves)
So my buddy gave me a pep talk that now I would be going down to the lower tables and probably be paired with a lower tier guy with a good chance to bounce back. I got paired with a 3 thunderwolf squad space wolves player. This is a solid matchup for me. He had 3 units of wolves (each had an iron priest, 1 had a captain as well - all the normal t-wolves had shields) with 2 long fang units and a vindicaire in the list. He deployed the vindicaire bad and he died to the scatter bikes right off the bat (this was 1 of 2 games out of 6 I got to go first) with me taking 3-4 wolves out with everything else. I sacrificed the rangers, and kept the middle unit at bay with shooting, while the left unit only made it to turn 2 before the d-scythes got in range. His wolf lord's unit actually managed to kill the wraithknight and my warlord's unit, but other than that I tabled him turn 4
WIN 11 points
Round 6: Eldar (2xwebway portals w/d-scythes, wraithguard [wraith host] 3 5x scatter bikes, wraithlord, knight with cannons and 1 scatter laser and a spirit seer)
I was worried about this matchup big time. Mike was one of the guys I was hanging with and I knew his list would eat mine alive if his reserves were good and he went first. I rolled up the -1 reserve to opponent modifier on the strategic table, got the roll to go first (he didn't seize) and his d-scythes started in on turn 3 and they didn't come in at the same time. I was able to shoot apart his army as they came in piecemeal. I lost the d-scythes, rangers, vypers, a wave serpent and I tabled him turn 5.
WIN 11 points
So I finished on a roll with 2 max wins to finish 3-2-1. I was interested to see so many max wins/losses. I didn't see very many 8 point wins. I don't know if this is missions, armies or a combination of the 2, but I thought it noteworthy. So I ended up finishing 13th out of 40 players and VERY happy with that showing at my first
GT. If you have some more specific questions I can answer them for you. I appreciate y'all taking the time to give it a read!
