Went to one of the bigger tournaments here (but this isn't the US, only 30 ish people). Ended up coming 2nd, going 4-0 with mono cult. Helped by the fact that it was 1500 and only 2 dets I think, which hampered peoples' ability to bring in screens etc, but still, quite happy with it. Anyway, bat reps:
My list:
Brigade (FAE) Broodsurge
HQ Primus
HQ Iconward
HQ Patriarch (Familiar, crouchling) (WL)
Elite Kelermorph
Elite Nexos
Elite Clamavus
Troops Acolytes (20, 2 saws, banner, 1 hand flamer)
Troops Acolytes (20, 2 saws, banner, 1 hand flamer)
Troops Acolytes (20, banner)
Troops Acolytes (20, banner)
Troops Acolytes (18, 13 hand flamers, 5 demo charges)
Troops Brood Brothers (10)
FA Armoured sentinels (multi)
FA Armoured sentinels (multi)
FA Armoured sentinels (multi)
HS HWT (3xMortar)
HS HWT (3xMortar)
HS HWT (2xHB, mortar)
Total: 1500
Game 1: Frontline Assault, Vital Intelligence.
His list: Castellan+2 armigers.
Battalion (Cadian)
2xCommanders
3xguardsmen
3xmortars
Bullgryns (5?)
Also reserve points for an assassin.
I deployed first, with two sentinels, two mortars and the nexus on the left flank, trying to hide behind a piece of terrin. Other HWT, sentinel and guardsmen on the right flank.
He deployed mostly on my right flank, with mortars right back in the corner, armigers next to them and guardsmen+bullgryns forward, with the eversor and castellan in the middle of his units.
He seized.
T1: Shuffled things around, move move move the guardsmen forward and across. Kill 1/2 mortar squads and 1/2 sentinels. BB survived.
I shot at his central guardsmen screen, killed most of the squad, he spent a CP so they didn’t die to morale. Moved the BB onto the bonus objective, forgot to move the mortars onto the other objective in my DZ (the squad that died had been holding it). 4-2
T2: Ditto T1 basically: I think only the nexus was alive at the end of the turn.
I showed up with the flamer bomb in the middle of his DZ, taking an objective and in range to flame the guardsman squad on my far right flank near the mortars, and demo charge the bullgryns. Brought in another squad with PA (2) to charge and wrap his remaining screens, with patty as well for MO (basically to make sure I was in range of the knight next turn). Patty killed a bullgryn, demo charges killed them down to 1 left. Hand flamers wiped the squad. And the PA squad failed the charge. CP reroll, still failed. Welp. In hindsight, I probably should’ve brought in both characters, both to make sure the charge succeeded, but also to give them a bit more flexibility for next turn charges+MO. With how much I was banking on it succeeding with patty, there wasn’t really much in the way of extra risk for bringing in more I don’t think. 6-5
T3: Moved the castellan forward, but was still closer to demo charge squad. Nothing much else in the way of movement. Shooting, I was just left with an acolyte or two from the PA squad when the castellan finally shot, so he could only shoot patty with the characters sniping missile. Killed the acolytes, allocated the missile to the crouchling (never got to use familiar bonus
).
Then I showed up with everything else: one squad with saws+characters with patty near the knight. Other two squads (one of which PAed), primus and kelermorph on the right flank. MO did 10 wounds, saved 3 with 5+++ strat. Kelermorph killed eversor, not much else. Pretty sure patty charged the knight, unquestioning to palm off the couple of wounds that got through. Then the other squad made their 7” charge onto the knight and some guardsmen+objectives. PA squad made their charge onto the armigers+mortars, last squad failed their 8” charge. Forgot to pop draw blood at the start of the fight phase...patty+saws still knocked the knight down to 2 wounds though, but costly error. Other squad killed an armiger, consolidated onto the other and one of the mortars while wrapping the company commander. Scored all bar the objective on my right DZ flank: 6-9.
T4: Remaining armiger runs away, knight fights at full effect, kills patty and most all of the acolyte squad. Lose some from the other acolyte squad as it gets counter charged by the bullgryn. Possibly CP to pass morale.
I think I reinforcements at this point, because I know I’m not going to kill anything more and it’s just going to be a case of surviving on objectives. I then charge with the final acolyte squad, killing everything(?) on his flank, kelermorph runs away to score bonus objective while clamavus+iconward make a valiant last stand on the central objective. 7-13(?)
T5: He kills my clamavus, nexus and iconward with the knight. Armiger capped central objective, knight went for linebreaker.
Chill on the objectives I’m on, if there was anything remaining on the flank I kill it. 9-17.
Overall, pretty good game. Acolytes (mostly) did what they were supposed to i.e. kill stuff while scoring and having enough bodies that they’re difficult to remove. The fact that I was still comfortably able to win, despite failing the charge and stuffing up the kill on the knight is a pretty good showing. I was going to comment about it almost going badly wrong with just dodging the patty kill T2, but...would that have changed anything? I failed to kill the knight, and the damage I did to it was basically irrelevant (he used 2 CP...huge impact. Though another 3 on the missile strat...). So...I guess I made him spend resources killing patty and the acolytes later?
Game 2: Cult vs Cult. H&A, Narrow the Search.
His list:
Battalion (Hive Cult)
Magus
Jackal (WL) Relic sniper
3xneos (2 with grenades, 1 with webbers)
3xgoliaths
3xridgerunners (mining lasers, flares)
Battalion (FAE) Annointed
Primus
Iconward (relic banner?)
Abominant (amulet) (Field commander trait)
2x10 acolytes
5 acolytes
10 aberrants
Clamavus
He deployed first, everything on the left flank: two goliaths, ridgerunners with characters, then the last goliath. I deployed mostly on the right, with as much out of range as possible (in hindsight, probably could’ve got a bit more out of range/los of the goliaths?). He took first turn.
T1: He moved up: ridgerunners out of range, goliaths killed a HWT to get first blood (actually quite important).
I blip, he generations, I generations back (though later I remembered needing a FAE model, which he didn’t have). Maybe plink a handful of wounds of a vehicle or other? 1-1.
T2: Similar to T1, kills some HWT and almost kills a sentinel. Shows up with a 10 man aco squad, fails the charge. 5 man aco squad behind the characters.
I show up with 2 units (1 saw) and clamavus/iconward. PA the saw squad, he generation’s it: which I was fine with, was important but also bait. He then CPs a 1 into a 6.
. Kill his 10 man aco squad with my backline, do some wounds with pistols to vehicles. Charge the two goliaths with the saw unit, other unit charges one of the ridgerunners. Fight first with the squad attacking the ridgerunners, pile in to the others, hostage it and drop it to 1 wound. Saw unit piles in, but can’t get behind the goliaths to prevent the neophytes getting out. With draw blood, kill both goliaths, pile in to the neophytes because even though I can’t hostage, I figure he has more shooting, so the -1 is probably more important than dodging return strikes...and then lose a silly amount to return strikes. 1-2
T3: He falls back and shows up with everything else in my backline. Shooting kills the saw aco squad. Aco squad fails the charge. Aberrants fail the charge. Primus makes the charge and kills a mortar squad, abominant makes the charge and kills my iconward.
Move my remaining aco squad to charge his neos I’m pretty sure. Show up with the rest of my stuff: patty and saw squad in his backline (saw squad PA: think I CPed), other squad midfield with primus to charge the aberrants with clamavus support. Lying in wait to demo his aberrant and flamer neos (clamavus made flaming acos impossible). Kelermorph shows up to shoot his aberrant (because I forgot -1), ends up shooting acos. Nothing else valuable to shoot: magus didn’t matter, jackal was unlikely to die, primus was out of range and iconward was protected by clamavus. Patty...might on saw squad and MO on a ridgerunner I think? MO does a couple of wounds. Aco squad kills his neos and touches ridgerunners, saw squad charges and wraps his goliath, killing it and everything inside. Final aco squad fails its 7” charge on the aberrants. No rerolls
. 1-3
T4: Quick turn due to time. He can’t kill enough stuff with the aberrant to deny me objective VP, ends up just trying to kill patty. Then I kill jackal for WL. 2-6.
Very comfortable win (remember, only 1 VP per turn apart from secondaries). Acos controlled the only objective through body count, and killed stuff to assist with survival. His list...felt very meh. He had ~half his army do very little. The ridgerunners seemed both too fragile and too at the mercy of 36” heavy. The goliaths seemed maybe OK: not great output, but 48” and were at least a transport. Though I think that just DS the neos would often be better: no risk of explosion casualties and arguably more mobile. Overall happy with how I played: the only thing that might have been the wrong call was PA the saw squad vs the squad wanting to charge the aberrant, but 7” vs 8” and the saw squad went and killed objective relevant stuff, so...I think, especially when considering time, that it was the right call. Otherwise the saw squad would’ve also been well outside useful range, where as this way they would’ve been able to counter charge the aberrant if it went to T5.
Game 3: Ooh boy. Not happy with how I played this, very messy. Four Pillars, DoW.
His list:
Battalion (Ulthwe? 6+++)
Autarch
Eldrad
4x5 dire avengers
2 wave serpents
Hemlock
Swooping hawks
Spearhead (Black Heart)
Archon (WL)
3xravagers
He deployed first, most things left flank, one wave serpent middle and hemlock far right flank.
I deployed everything on the far right flank, outside of range of everything bar hemlock.
He gave me first turn.
T1: I deployed, vected blips, generations vect. Shot at the wave serpent because why not, ended up doing 8 wounds or something silly.
He moved the wave serpent back, disembarked a dire avengers unit on an objective, and castled all of his tanks (bar injured wave serpent, which didn’t have enough move to go all the way) around them. Hemlock killed a sentinel or something. 0-2
T2: He had everything of importance grouped together with no screens: basically a giant “charge me” target. Which I did. Lying in wait to bait vect (judged PA more important, in part due to movement options), which he did, so I just stuck them on an objective with a guy outside 9” just in case. PA saw squad next to demo squad on the right flank to charge the wounded wave serpent. Everything else on the left flank, which was really awkward: 3 squads within 6” of my characters, wanted to hold an objective in my DZ...very messy. Tactically probably OK, but in practice when I hadn’t been organised to paint clear squad demarcations? Mistake. Kelermorph positioned to take some pot shots at the archon. Might on a squad, MO on the other wave serpent to knock off some wounds. Kelermorph kills the archon after he rolls a 1 for his first save...no other shooting to speak of. Charge with everything, cop more overwatch than I should because I was being greedy (didn’t really change much, but still). Draw blood on PA saw squad. The squad on its own near characters (2 went right, one went left from bubbles) failed charge, other two including might squad made it. But very awkward to fit enough into combat: didn’t roll long enough charges and still wanted to daisy chain back to hold objective and protect characters. Might squad killed wave serpent (dire avengers+autarch were able to escape onto a ruin despite the masses of bodies
), he popped lightning reflexes so PA saw squad failed to kill other wave serpent despite draw blood (he rolled something like 4/6 fnp on the saws, everything else basically whiffed). Should maybe have had primus nearby, though that would’ve made it difficult for all the other squads, so...
His turn, moved the ravagers back, disembarked everything from injured wave serpent, charged with autarch. Dakka’d basically everything into demo squad, killing it: I now don’t hold all 4 objectives, so only get the 1 VP for hold more. Should probably have had the PA squad daisy chain back as well, so then I had two units on it, same as I had for the backfield objective, but...killing the wave serpent, and thus killing troops and removing their mobility would’ve been better. Not sure how close they were as to whether it was worth the sacrifice, but would’ve been something to consider. 3-2 (I actually think we mis-scored this in game: either that, or something of mine died other than the demo charge unit, but I don’t think so: maybe he killed the saw unit as well?? Which would make the above considerations about being on the objective a tad moot
).
T3: Moved up as much as I could (one squad of acos were still in combat with the autarch) and reinforced an aco squad. Patty moved up to charge ravagers. Saw squad moved over to charge dire avengers (not sure which saw squad this was...). Squad that failed its charge moved up to finish off dire avengers who’d been in the exploded wave serpent. Not much else: couldn’t get on all objectives, so just held in his DZ and one with the BB. Saw acos charged dire avengers and wave serpent, killed a squad down to 1 guy (and hostaged) and...didn’t do much else? Used lightning reflexes again on something. Failed to kill any ravagers
: again, bit greedy, should’ve focused better (though it ended up working out fairly well since they were all degraded movement). Minor thing I just thought of now that I maybe didn’t do was consolidate into everything to stop advancing (may have actually meant the hemlock had to actually worry about what its movement was
. Probably not, but hey).
Final turn due to time (that mess T2 took way too long
), so he moved hemlock+ravager up to try and take out BB. Also dropped swooping hawks near BB. And then I remembered a strat: lurking in the shadows to win me the game
. Couldn’t shoot anything but the hemlock at them (if he’d shot them first, he probably could’ve shot the swooping hawks...not sure why he didn’t) and I had way too many models on the other objective to shift. 6-3.
Game 4: Another Cult vs Cult, this one even more mind games than the last one. Front line assault, supplies from above (we ended up just placing all the objectives in the corners: not sure if this was the right move, but it’s what we did).
His list (thinking on it now, not sure how it was organised):
Battalion (FAE)
Patriarch
Primus
Iconward
Kelermorph
Clamavus
2(?)x20 acolytes
20 brood brothers
10 aberrants
IG Spearhead(?)
Primaris psyker
Astropath
3x3 mortars
2 vultures
He deployed first: mortars on either flank and in the middle with characters (including some GSC ones in blips and scanner decoys) with vultures on the right flank.
I deployed sentinels centre (because he had nothing that could deal with them apart from charges: and I was fine with him charging them), 2 mortars on left flank with nexos, HB HWT on right flank with BB.
He gave me T1.
T1: Mortars sat on objective, BB moved towards objective (had been in terrain in case he took first). He sent GSC characters back into reserve, effectively just wasting 2 CP
. Mortars shot at his left flank mortars and killed them (First strike for the first time with this army!), sentinels and other HWT shot at other mortars/vultures depending on range/los and did some wounds.
He moved up vultures, killing my HWT on objectives (in hindsight now, should maybe have just sat sentinels on them
), mortars do some wounds to last mortar squad/BB.
T2: He won every roll of for objectives, so I scored nothing
. BB and nexus ran after them. Didn’t like the vultures, and also wanted to get him to bring stuff in, but also didn’t want to hard commit and get deleted. So, single aco squad, patty+Characters. Sentinels shuffle around to make DSing on my acos more awkward. Patty MO to drop one vulture to 4 wounds, acos...fail their charge on mortars
: missed hostaging and also failed to shift the mortar squad from one of his objectives.
His T2, he moves back the vultures to kill acos (one has to hover) and brings in...a brood brother squad to charge the nexus (fails to kill him, but does succeed the charge to prevent me scoring again
). Hmm... Vulture ends up killing acps out of range of the other vulture, which then just whiffs on the BB
. About it.
T3: Finally score thanks to the BB. He has basically nothing on the board, I’ve got 80 acolytes in reserve. I think you can see where this is going
. Lying in wait+sentinels to block midboard, PA a squad to charge his BB, with the other squads filling in the gaps on left flank. Saw squad positioned to charge vulture. Clamavus+BB+remaining acos blocking right flank. Patty moved up to kill the vultures: MO one, failed(?) hyp: charged anyway, tanking on his better T and sv. He made, saws made, it died. Kelermorph killed astropath who was in left flank corner, killed mortars with flamers+the half dead aco squad.
There was a small gap where the astropath was, since I couldn’t deploy there: in hindsight, should possibly have daisy chained PA squad all the way back there, had another squad to try and help charge on the BB: I should’ve had the models to fill in the gaps still
. But anyway, only one aco squad and aberrant (and characters) could fit. Generations PA, he used lying in wait to save the last aco squad. Charged my aco squad who was there, they died horribly.
T4: Basically quick run through due to time: I firmly controlled ¾ objectives, he was so far out of position that he couldn't contest them, so he called it in my favour.
Will post up a bit more thoughts etc (both game 4 and overall) in a bit, just want this posted now.