My first time posting one of these, just wanted to share my experiences in a great tournament I took part in last weekend. 5 round 2 day affair.
War of the Roses 2016.
Overall, the event was
quiiite competitive, the lists for everyone are online somewhere if you feel like looking, and
tbh the worst armies there were still things like WarCons, Nids with several flyrants or Daemons with several
FMCs (this is in my opinion). Pretty large turnout of about 48? people too.
The event was 1850pts, using the
ETC rules pack. This allows 4 detachments, only 1 Gargantuan/Super Heavy(cap of like 450pts) besides Imperial Knights which if taken in multiples must be different ones (i.e. not double paladin, has to be paladin, errant..or paladin errant gallant). Also no Forgeworld. Wasn't using the new
GW FAQ (seeing as its just a draft right now), but
ETC has its own, which is good for some armies and less good for others.. (this also meant several things were still big at the event, like buddy pods and GMCs in 25% cover).
I knew psychic death stars would probably be good at this tournament, the rules pack did not limit them at all and in fact helped them by having 4 detachments (one army I saw had triple conclave!) as well as a few other smaller rules like each Psyker counts individually - so as many shrieks as you want from the unit etc. Also Angels of Death was legal so I expected to see at least some Space marine stars.
Despite this, I wanted to see if the psychic was really that good and chose not to take a Culexus (this didn't matter later on as I managed to dodge death stars somehow), but if I went again I would definitely take one. The top tables were heaped with psychic death stars. I took a TauDar list that is pretty filthy and probably one of the best lists if not for psychic stars, borrowing my brother's eldar USER: (
Donyoppa).
My first time using eldar, and I didn't have time to test some games due to university finals the week before so I knew I may make some mistakes.
My list was as follows:
Eldar CAD:
Farseer: bike, stone
3 scatbikes
3 scatbikes
1 D-Cannon
1 D-Cannon
Wraithknight: wraithcannons + 2 scatter lasers.
Riptide Wing:
2 Riptides: HBC,
SMS,
EWO, 1 target lock
2 Riptides: HBC,
SMS,
EWO, 1 target lock
2 Riptides: HBC,
SMS,
EWO
[this was a mistake, I should have played my tides 3-2-1 to get +1 BS for one unit due to Fire Team rule..different sizes don't matter due to target locks]
Here's a pic of my army:
Round 1: vs. War Convocation
These lists and battle reports are from memory I'm afraid so sorry if I'm not 100% accurate!
He had:
Dominus
Grav servitors
Grav servitors
Ruststalkers
Infiltrators
shooty sniper skitarii
rad/plasma skitarii
Dunecrawler w/ icarus array
Balistarii w/las cannon
Knight with Battle cannon + 12 shot rending thing
Knight with battle cannon + chainsword
I'll use this batrep to say something about how the missions/scoring worked: basically it was eternal war primary, with maelstrom secondary, and Kill Points/first blood/warlord/linebreaker tertirary = all the points from these added together at the end (eternal war obj worth 3-6 depending on whether relic, big guns, etc) and the difference between the players' scores amounted to how many points you scored out of 20. (so if you tabled/scored loads more you won 20-0, if narrow victory 12-8, etc...)
On round 1 it was Hammer and Anvil deployment, with the primary being big guns. He got first turn and the infiltrate warlord trait, I thought that would screw me as infiltrating grav servitors could cream my tides/WK. He set up with his smaller dudes out of sight, the vehicles at the front of his 24" zone, as well as the knights. One unit (ruststalkers) was outflanking. I set up with all my big guys toe in cover with the tides in a circle around the WK. D Cannons and bikes out of sight behind some tall buildings. He infiltrates the two servitors without the dominus in the centre, who joins the rad/plasma skitarii, and his infiltrators quite close to my castled up army.
His first turn he uses shroudplasm and +1 or 2
BS. Immediately has some bad luck with his shooty knight rolling triple 2's on a terrain and barely moves at all. Everything moves up besides the small guys who stay hidden or in hard cover. With shooting he does two wounds to the WK (who bosses his cover/
FNP) and kills a riptide. Tbf I managed to screw him a little by deploying my WK very far back with lots of units in the way so his infiltrating servitors werent all in range. My turn I move bikes out from behind terrain, riptides stand still, knight moves round a bit, guide/prescience the WK and a unit of bikes. My D cannons are out of range so they just sit still behind terrain. D guns on WK only does 1
HP to his Melee knight, and 4 riptides hailfiring with burst cannons finish it off just with rends. The other riptide novas his
SMS and shoots with the bikes at servitors, they kill one from each unit and he fails morale on one unit, which means they are snap shooting.
He shroudplasms again and tries to finish off the WK, to no avail. I dont bother intercepting his outflanking unit. My turn I finish off the servitors and kill both his sicaran units. I make a mistake here and leave one of my D Cannons out when I should have jumped riptides in front of it. It gets charged the following turn by the ironstrider. By turn 3 all he has left is his knight, a couple squads of skitarii and his 2 walkers. He throws everything into the one man riptide and puts it down to 1 wound. In return I kill everything except his knight, who dies the following turn to rending burst cannons and scatter lasers into the side armor. I get max points with tabling him on turn 4 or 5.
Round 2: vs. TAU Piranhas w/ Riptide Wing
He had:
Ethereal
Solo suit
Solo suit
Bunker
Inquisitor with 3 servo skulls
6 burst tides in a riptide wing, units of 3-2-1
Piranha firestream wing:
3 units of 4 piranhas + lone piranha
(represented mostly by the flying saucers)
This was a bit of a learning curve. How his army worked was the piranhas dropped drones, then went into reserve. Came back next turn and did same thing, going straight back into reserve, can't intercept as it happens in movement phase. Basically he spawns 30ish gun drones a turn, which despite not being able to score just clog the board and provide 200+
str 5 shots by the final turns if not killed (which is difficult to do as drones are actually quite hardy and there are 30 spawning a turn). The riptides just act as pressure and good firepower. Really great army, the drones are so annoying to play against since they move so far and the guy really knew what he was doing with them.
It was relic primary, with dawn of war deployment. Since drones cant score my plan was just to sit the WK on the relic. He got turn 1, I had deployed to well so that only 4 of his tides were in 36" range for burst cannon hailfire against my own tides. He spawns drones, moves off piranhas and kills one of my riptides with hailfire (my saves were good)...and uses the other 2 tides to kill my d cannons with
SMS. This was a mistake, I should have deployed the DCannons on the other side of the board with the rest of my army or kept them in reserve, just gave away easy
KP. In my turn I kill 3 of his burst tides with my own hailfire (my dice were good and he rolled quite a few 1s for his saves) and the WK was great in doing damage with D and moving up to the relic. Basically the game just carried on with him spawning drones, which clogged the board and eventually killed my WK with something like 400+ shots over the course of 2-3 turns. I manage to kill off his riptides, get onto the relic after killing some drones, and kill his bunker with warlord inside. It was great that I went second because the game ends with me on the relic since I have last turn, and his piranhas have to spend his last turn getting shot by my tides since he left them on for turn 5 to claim objectives. I win this one 15-5 since I barely get any
KP due to the drones not giving them up.
Round 3: vs. Eldar with aspects/void shield
He had:
Farseer with bike and stone
Autarch with fusion gun and warp jump generator
5 units of 3 scatbikes
1 D cannon
Wraithknight with sword and shield (no ranged)
Void Shield with extra shield
Aspect host with 3 units of spiders
Aspect host with 3 units of hawks
Culexus on foot
Great list, the only thing i didn't agree with was taking the sword on the WK, it meant he lacked ranged D and couldnt sit in the void shield. However it is better vs death stars i guess.. This tourney also wasnt using the new
gw faq, so he could literally have 1 model from the unit partially in the 12" void shield radius and claim the shield. V. annoying.
This game was scouring with Vanguard strike deployment. He had first turn. He deployed by castling up in his void shield in the corner, all 3 spiders deep striking with his autarch. I dont think he should have reserved the spiders, he was going first after all. I deploy with all my bikes and cannons behind
LoS blocking terrain, and my riptides/WK out as far as possible in front. The reason for this was (with his spiders in reserve) he had no Ap2 so I didn't need to claim cover. Also he could easily outrange me with bikes so I needed to get close with riptides asap. His culexus infiltrated near an objective close to 2 of my riptides.
The game went as I thought it would, he put some wounds on my tides with his first turn shooting, but without spiders or ranged D he couldnt do too much damage. His hawks jumped straight into reserve. In return I got rid of the shields with bikes, killed 2-3 units of bikes and put 3 wounds on the WK. His turn he again doesnt do much with shooting, but his culexus charges my 2 tides and proceeds to roll two 6s to wound, killing both with
ID... His spiders deep strike and I kill most in interceptor, since he couldn't come down in a way that he'd be in range but also out of
LoS with jump. Basically the game ends with me killing everything except a couple of units of hawks and his Cannon with farseer sitting at the back of the board. I'm left with 3 riptides and my WK. I win this one 15-5 since he has a couple of objectives with his hawks.
Round 4: vs Eldar
He had:
Eldrad Ulthran
Farseer on Bike
5x 3 scatbikes
3x3 DCannons
Wraithknight with d cannons and scatter lasers
30 warp spiders
Pretty scary army. It was Emperor's Will with dawn of war deployment. He deploys balanced in a line with all his bikes in reserve. I castle my riptides in a corner and put the WK just in front. This is a huge mistake, for some reason I was scared of my tides getting D'd by the WK, yet left my own WK in range. In general my deployment was bad and left me open and stuck in a corner, whilst also not being able to capitalize on a seize that well. He uses his Eldrad warlord trait to scout his D cannons forward. I do indeed seize, which is good, but my deployment left me a bit screwed since I couldn't use my riptides to kill the WK.
Turn 1 I kill all his D Cannons and about 10 spiders from various squads. My WK wiffs on his D. His turn he immediately starts by 6'ing my WK, and moving up with all his spiders. He also casts Invis on his WK, at this point Im pretty screwed. I fire all my tides into the WK and put 3 wounds on it. Basically it takes me 3 turns of shooting to kill his invisible WK all of which he was using to kill a few riptides. He eventually tables me, but I do only leave him with his seers and about 3 squads of spiders. My dice werent that hot this game, I remember failing many 2+ saves, and at the end I charged 3 riptides into several squads of spiders and actually lose combat (
lol).
Basically, I lose this game due to my horrendous deployment with the riptides, as well as of course getting my WK 6'd turn one which is quite difficult to come back from. Him having Invis on his psykers was also amazing. I still think that even if I had got my own WK 6'd or similar bad luck I could have pulled this one out if I had had my tides deployed better, they could have killed the WK turn one and then just mopped up. Oh well, it was a good learning experience.
Round 5: vs Tyranids
Sorry I didnt manage to get a proper pic of his army.
He had:
3 Flyrants with guns
Toxicrene in drop pod
Mucolid
Genestealers
3 Venomthropes
All the new genestealer cult -> including ghostsar, the other characters, and all the big units.
I got first turn, deploymend was Hammer and Anvil with Big Guns primary. He puts everything in reserve except his flyrants and venomthropes, which he castles behind a ruin in the corner of the board. I deploy as far forwards as possible, except for the bikes and D Cannons which are either out of
LoS or in a ruin. I start well by killing all his Venomthropes with
SMS and 6'ing a Hive Tyrant with D from the WK. He just moves up with his flyrants and puts some shots/psychic into a riptide, killing one. In my turn I kill another tyrant by pouring shots into it. About half of his reserves come on and are killed mostly in interceptor. The rest of the game just involves me mopping up.
Final thoughts:
So I was pretty lucky to avoid deathstars, and I'm fairly pleased with 4-1. I placed either 8/9th due to some of my wins not being max points. Ironically both my round 2 and 3 opponents finished above me due to the scoring system, with my 2nd round opponent even grabbing second place. The top tables were heaped with stars, and the overall winner ended up being Wraithguard-star, claiming max points in every game. It was a good learning experience, particularly in the game I lost, and I do think the level of psyhic in the game now (besides me not actually facing it) necessitates a culexus in most lists unfortunately.
Thanks for reading, sorry about the walls of text!
