No One's 8th ed battle reports (Now with new Cult)

[No One]

Master Chief said:

The only huge difference is that in case of first turn the tyr has bog units for stopping the plague bearers from moving. Usually on T1 you just move 30ish of termagants in front of his deployment for not letting him move and the battle will be in his deployment, so you will have all the time to score points for board control.

I mean, I could still do that to a lesser extent with the 12 man (probably bump to 14 man/10 man instead for this), but at that point I'm giving movement (one unit loses movement to kill it, only really getting consolidate, while others get charge+pile in+consolidate at ~13", probably on top of movement). Could see similar happening even with 30 man on DoW. Can do work against guardsmen though, stopping move move move.

Also, I think another potentially big difference is actually the ability of GSC to snipe Characters, with kelermorph (oppressor due to T5) and MO.

[Master Chief]

Yeah but is still hard to get till them because usually they are in the second line after plague bearers or other stuff.

And for the psychic powers the enrapturess might be annoying.

But anyway plague bearers cannot deal with masses of close combat infantry with bonuses to hit.

[kazetanade]

From memory a full GS unit only takes out about 7 when fully buffed? So I wouldn't say "can't handle melee guys"... Its just your list is overloading on the melee.

Kellermorph has been woefully inept so far. I think my opponents don't play enough key buff characters to make him worth LiW for, other than a Girlyman which is not going down to Kelly.

[No One]

Yeah but is still hard to get till them because usually they are in the second line after plague bearers or other stuff.

Sure, I don't expect to get them without lying in wait, but still, I've got the threat there, especially for noxious blightspawn.

And for the psychic powers the enrapturess might be annoying.

Nah, it doesn't stop it, just lets me get Unquestioning card easier .

[No One]

Had a team tournament last week, personally ended up going pretty well (though the team didn't, so can't say I was exactly going up against the best opponent's ). Might edit in some other things/try and clean up the formatting etc tomorrow, but just want to post this so I don't lose it. Edit: Like the fact that my spoilers for lists aren't working . Blegh. And the fact that I forgot my own list. Again.

My list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Battalion (Four Armed Emperor) Points
Specialist Detachment: Deliverance Broodsurge -1 CP
HQ Patriarch (125), Familiar (12), (Warlord)
Default: Mass Hypnosis, Might from Beyond. Trait: Shadow Stalker 137
HQ Iconward (53)
Default: Field Commander, Auger of the Insurgent (-1 CP) 53
Elite Kelermorph (60) 60
Elite Nexos (50) 50
Elite Clamavus (55) 55
Troops 20 Acolyte Hybrids (140), 3 heavy rock saws (30), cult icon (10) 180
Troops 20 Acolyte Hybrids (140), 3 heavy rock saws (30), cult icon (10) 180
Troops 20 Acolyte Hybrids (140), cult icon (10) 150
Troops 20 Acolyte Hybrids (140), cult icon (10) 150
Troops 17 Acolyte Hybrids (119), cult icon (10) 129
HS 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18), 3 mortars (21) 39
HS 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18), 3 mortars (21) 39
HS 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18), 3 mortars (21) 39

Battalion (Four Armed Emperor)
HQ Primus (72), bonesword (5) 75
HQ Magus (80), Familiar (12) Relic: The Crouchling
Default: Mass Hypnosis, Might from Beyond, Mind Control (Crouchling) 80
Troops 20 Acolyte Hybrids (140), 15 hand flamers (15), 5 demolition charges (25) 180
Troops 10 Brood Brothers Infantry Squad (40) 40
Troops 10 Brood Brothers Infantry Squad (40) 40

Battalion (Kraken)
HQ Neurothrope (90)
Default: The Horror 90
HQ Neurothrope (90)
Default: Psychic Scream 90
Troops 14 Termagants (56) 56
Troops 10 Termagants (40) 40
Troops 3 Rippers (33) 33

Total 1997

All missions have kill points, as well as standard CA 18 secondaries.
Game 1:
My opponent’s list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Brigade: Emperors Wrath Vigilus Detachment (-1cp)
HQ: Company Commander (30), Laspistol (0), Chainsword (0) – [30] (2P) WARLORD, Trait: Old Grudges
HQ: Company Commander (30), Laspistol (0), Chainsword (0) – [30] (2P)
HQ: Company Commander (30), Laspistol (0), Chainsword (0) – [30] (2P)

Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Infantry Squad – 9 Guardsmen, 1 Sargeant (40), 9 Lasguns (0), 1 Laspistol (0), 1 Chainsword (0) – [40] (3P)
Troops: Militarum Tempestus Scions – 4 Tempestus Scions, 1 Tempestor (45), 2 Hot-Shot Lasguns (0), 2 Plasma Guns (22), 1 Plasma Pistol (5), 1 Chainsword (0) – [72] (3P)
Troops: Militarum Tempestus Scions – 4 Tempestus Scions, 1 Tempestor (45), 2 Hot-Shot Lasguns (0), 2 Plasma Guns (22), 1 Plasma Pistol (5), 1 Chainsword (0) – [72] (3P)

Elites: Sargeant Harker – [52] (3P)
Elites: Astropath (26), Laspistol (0) –[26] (1P)
Elites: Tech-Priest Enginseer (30), Laspistol (0), Omnissian axe (0), Servo-Arm (0) – [30] (2P)

Fast Attack: Hellhound (73), Inferno Cannon (20), Heavy Bolter (8) – [101] (6P)
Fast Attack: Hellhound (73), Inferno Cannon (20), Heavy Bolter (8) – [101] (6P)
Fast Attack: Hellhound (73), Inferno Cannon (20), Heavy Bolter (8) – [101] (6P)

Heavy Support: Basilisk (100), Earthshaker Cannon (0), Heavy Bolter (8) – [108] (7P)
Heavy Support: Basilisk (100), Earthshaker Cannon (0), Heavy Bolter (8) – [108] (7P)
Heavy Support: Basilisk (100), Earthshaker Cannon (0), Heavy Bolter (8) – [108] (7P)
Heavy Support: Wyvern (95), Wyvern Quad Stormshard Mortar (0), Heavy Bolter (8) –[103] (6P)


Supreme Command: Emperors Fist Vigilus detachment (-1CP)
HQ: Tank Commander (142), Battle Cannon (22), Heavy Bolter (8) – [172] (12P), Relic: Hammer of Sunderance
HQ: Tempstor Prime (40), Tempestus Command Rod (5), Chainsword (0) – [45] (3P)
HQ: Primaris Psyker (38), Force Stave (8), Laspistol (0) – [46] (2P)

Lord of War: Shadow Sword (410), Volcanno Cannon (0), Twin Heavy Bolter (14), Adamantium Tracks (0) – [424] (26P)

Mission: Frontline Warfare (end game scoring, 1 VP own DZ, 2 VP neither, 3 VP opponents), Contact Lost (draw card for each objective held). Frontline Assault
Terrain was fairly sparse: some medium sized ruins in each corner and a decent sized LOS blocker in the centre (about vehicle height), some smattered walls/hills around and that was it. One objective in opposite DZ corners (mine left flank, his right flank), 2 middle left flank, 1 middle right flank (last no idea).
He deployed his hellhounds and tank commander left flank, shadowsword central, basilisks and wyvern right in the right flank corner. Guardsmen screens on both flanks.
I ‘deployed’ (was all blips) mostly on my DZ objective, out of range of wyvern, mortars+nexos+rippers in ruin, gaunts/BB/neuros hiding where they could (which was not much).

T1: He moved up with everything on the left flank, move move move 2 squads of guardsmen up, 3rd stayed behind. Moved to the left of the central terrain piece with the shadowsword. Moved up his right flank a bit, but not as aggressively: left one squad as a pretty close screen on the artillery. Basilisks shot mortars, things shot gaunts, lost mortars/gaunts.
I moved up with the neuros (horror less aggressive) and BB, aiming to clear out as much of his guardsmen as possible. Metabolic gaunts forward to take an objective from him for maelstrom. I think I rolled 3 for all my MWs, which was nice: combined with remaining mortars+BB, killed one squad and pushed some casualties on another.

T2: Move move move one of the right flank squads, ended up about halfway up the board. Left flank just moved into rapid range of BB. Hellhounds and tank commander shuffled about (one slightly forward and right of terrain piece, everything else left). Shot stuff, things died: ended the turn with only my horror neuro, nexos and rippers (and maybe a mortar or two) alive.
My T2, showed up with Characters and a single 20 man squad on the right flank: PA to make sure I get the charge. Hyp the hellhound so I can go for a charge on it with patty+squad (not sure there was any point to this, especially since patty failed his charge, but anyway). Also a BB squad for protection from scions. Flamer+demo squad on left flank to score objectives and deny him scoring: also in flamer range of 2 squads and demo range of a hellhound. Nothing much else happened, charged and killed 1 guardsmen squad, either couldn’t make it to the 2nd or couldn’t confirm the kill, but hostaged the hellhound and was near combat with whatever remaining guardsmen were around. He auto passed the 1 guardsmen left from the flamer squad (and something like 4/5 6s on the hellhound, but oh well, they did their job).

T3: He moved up with his guardsmen on right flank for...terrible reasons. Left flank shuffled about, murdered the flamer squad. Finished off my mortars+rippers. I HI’d on the guardsmen squad (stupid, were in pile in range), letting them fight first and kill some acolytes . Which meant I couldn’t actually finish the squad, 2 left. We also both forgot scions, despite just discussing them previous turn.
My turn 3, showed up with a saw squad left flank, 17 man right flank to just shut down the basilisks for the rest of the game. Might went off, hyp shadowsword (just out of range for mind control . 2 CP worth it?) Charged shadowsword, more hostages on hellhound (both squads joined in, plus patty for...again, unknown reasons). All the new guys meant I left it on 1 wound, he CP rerolled a save into...a save *phew*. Might+draw blood on saw squad squad almost killed shadowsword, even with only ~half the squad in combat with it (daisy chained for hostage+buffs). Killed off the guardsmen on the right flank, consolidated into tanks, shutting them down and taking the objective.
T4: He rushed my objective with TC and hellhounds, shadowsword fell back to re-charge. No shooting. Crush them, Generations, shadowsword is now harmless (can’t remember if he charged or I just piled in/HI, but it was still hyped, so...didn’t matter either way).
I show up with one squad in his backline to kill a bunch of Characters for VP, other saw squad shows up in my backline with PA to defend my objective.
Game ends. Solid win, though not quite 20-0 (as it would’ve been with another turn/not drawing 4 defends final turn). Score, 17-3


Game 2:
His list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Battalion: Kraken
HQ: Malanthrope - [140] (5P)
HQ: SwarmLord – [250] (15P)
Troop: Genestealers – 18 Genestealers (216), 18 Rending Claws (0), 4 Acid Maws (0) – [216] (16P)
Troop: Genestealers – 18 Genestealers (216), 18 Rending Claws (0), 4 Acid Maws (0) – [216] (16P)
Troop: Ripper Swarms – 3 Ripper Swarms (33) – [33] (2P)

Detachment: Brigade
Specialist Detachment: Deliverance Broodsurge (-1CP)

HQ: Magus (80) w Familiar (12) <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [92] (5P)
Default Relic: The Crouchling

HQ: Acolyte Iconward <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [53] (3P)
HQ: Primus (72) w Bonesword (3) <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [75] (4P)

Troops: 15 Acolyte Hybrids (105), Acolyte Leader (7), 6x Heavy Rock Saw (60), Cult Icon (10) <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [182] (11P)
Troops: 16 Acolyte Hybrids (112), Acolyte Leader (7), 17x Hand Flamers (17), Cult Icon (10) <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [146] (11P)
Troops: 9 Brood brothers (36), Brood Brothers Leader (4) [40] (3P)
Troops: 9 Brood brothers (36), Brood Brothers Leader (4) [40] (3P)
Troops: 9 Brood brothers (36), Brood Brothers Leader (4) [40] (3P)
Troops: 9 Brood brothers (36), Brood Brothers Leader (4) [40] (3P)

Elites: Nexos <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> WARLORD [50] (3P)
Elites: Clamavus <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [55] (3P)
Elites: Kelermorph <Cult of The Four-Armed Emperor> [60] (3P)

Fast Attack: 4 Atalan Jackals (40), Atalan Leader (10), 5x Demolition Charge (25), 5 x Shotguns (0) <The Rusted Claw> [75] (6P)
Fast Attack: Cult Armoured Sentinel (30) w Autocannon (10) [40] (3P)
Fast Attack: Cult Armoured Sentinel (30) w Autocannon (10) [40] (3P)

Heavy Support: 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18) w 3x Mortar (21) [39] (3P)
Heavy Support: 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18) w 3x Mortar (21) [39] (3P)
Heavy Support: 3 Brood Brothers Heavy Weapons Squad (18) w 3x Mortar (21) [39] (3P)

Total Points – 2000

Mission: Scorched Earth (1 VP per objective end round, destroy objective in opponent’s DZ for D3). Tactical Escalation (Draw cards to turn number). Hammer and anvil
Board was better than last game: few decent sized ruins in corners, one around center with a couple of other bits of terrain sprinkled about. 1 objective my back left and his back right corners, another forward middle of my DZ, just outside his DZ, ~center and just outside my left DZ.
My game plan was basically to deny him the T1 charge with blips, screen with terms/BB and deploy acolytes on board to counter charge T2. Then clean up his T2/T3 drops with mine.


Deployment: He deployed all the nids on the line, mortars+BB further back,

My deployment was more complicated: I deployed a line of blips (/w extra blips) to stop an opportunistic, planning on using bounce or move strats to keep them out of easy charge range. Deployed patty and some 20 man acos in blips. Everything hugging towards the back of my DZ, terms and BB screened across outside of (easy) slingshot charge range.

T1: He goes first. Advances up with all the nids (including nexos: for some unknown reason, he was moving his Warlord nexos up with his nids.) Try and bait Generations with bounce, he lets it go through, I bounce 1 and deploy 2 for stealer counter charges. No opportunistic or slingshot, no charges. Mortars pick off some gaunts.
I shuffle around, make sure I’ve got a double line of screens to make it difficult to get to the acolytes as well as make overrun/adrenaline more awkward to impossible. Mortars kill some stealers.

I score some, he scores slightly more.

T2: He moves up with the stealers: opportunistics one, which I Generations (very much not sure if this was the right play: may have just been bait, but I wanted to deny a double stealer charge getting into the acolytes). Dropped in BB and rippers on both flanks. Slingshot the same stealers, charged my screens, didn’t declare any of my other stuff as targets (...), got heroic’d by patty for free. Had to fight twice to clear off the gaunts, destroyed my objective.
My turn, I moved up with one aco squad, backed off with the other so I could bounce them, since I didn’t think they’d remain relevant there. Showed up with flamers, he Generations (rolls a 1 into a 6...), I PA instead: move 6, get to flame the other stealers anyway. Also show up with a BB squad on the other flank to deny him a bit of space.
Shoot out his stealers+BB, charge stealers+BB+rippers, kill all but 1 stealer and 2 rippers. Counter charge on other stealers kill them, my BB make charge on his to block most of the right flank from DS.

T3: Swarmy goes after patty, nothing much else happens. Deploys his rock saws on left flank to counter charge my flamer acos, jackals show up middle being useless, rest of his Characters all nearby with the rock saws, flamers in my backfield to kill some mortars and the other aco squad: couldn’t quite show up on my objective due to clamavus (completely unintentional, but nice).

Flamers didn’t quite kill the acos or mortars, saws killed my acos, Swarmy did nothing to patty with horror+shadow stalker and some good invul/unquestioning rolling as well as familiar, and then got wrecked in return (he failed all 3 invuls, 2 were 6s and the other rolled 3). Not a bad combat there .
My T3, showed up with kelermorph to kill iconward, 2 squads with characters to kill his aco squads, 1 saw to charge jackals, his Kelly and Swarmy. Leave last saw squad in reserve.
Went as planned: just failed to kill 3 saws, and Swarmy could actually roll saves this turn, but only 1 wound through on Patty and everything else died.

T4: Killed some things with mortars I guess? He had a turn, but nothing really happened: pretty sure I killed Swarmy.
My T4: Didn’t have time to do much of anything. Showed up with saw squad, killed all his characters for KP and Warlord, grabbed an objective or 2.
Game End: Final Score, 16-4. Went perfectly to plan, which was nice.


Game 3: Not going to bother with this one. Guard like game 1, only 1 hellhound, didn’t move move move forward to deny me the board. I hostaged sentinels and the hellhound, killed his guardsmen and scored all the objectives. Easy 20-0


Game 4:
His list:

SPOILER: Click to show

DETACHMENT 1: Spearhead Detachment +1 CP
HQ

Sorceror with Jump Pack, (112) Bolt Pistol (0) Force Sword (8) 120pt(7PL)
Frag/Krak Grenade (0) Mark of Nurgle, Default powers – Death Hex, Prescience

HEAVY SUPPORT

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought (120) Butcher Cannon Array (40) 198pt(14PL)
Greater Havoc Launcher (21) Twin Heavy Bolter (17) Mark of Nurgle

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought (120) Butcher Cannon Array (40) 198pt(14PL)
Greater Havoc Launcher (21) Twin Heavy Bolter (17) Mark of Nurgle

Hellforged Deredeo Dreadnought (120) Butcher Cannon Array (40) 198pt(14PL)
Greater Havoc Launcher (21) Twin Heavy Bolter (17) Mark of Nurgle

Hellforged Leviathan Dreadnought (175) 2x Hellflamer (34) 289pt(16PL)
2x Butcher Cannon Array (80) Mark of Nurgle

DETACHMENT 2: Supreme Command +1CP

LEGION: Flawless host

SPECIALIST DETACHMENT: Soulforged Pack -1CP, Field Commander -1CP

HQ

Lord Discordant on Helstalker (150) Autocannon (10) Impaler Chainglaive (0) 160pt(9PL)
Techno-virus Injector (0) Frag/Krak Grenades (0) Bolt Pistol (0) Mechatendrils (0)
WARLORD, Trait – Ultimate Confidence, RELIC – Intoxicating Elixir, Mark of Slaanesh

Lord Discordant on Helstalker (150) Autocannon (10) Impaler Chainglaive (0) 160pt(9PL)
Techno-virus Injector (0) Frag/Krak Grenades (0) Bolt Pistol (0) Mechatendrils (0)
Mark of Slaanesh, Field Commander – Master of the Soulforges

Lord Discordant on Helstalker (150) Autocannon (10) Impaler Chainglaive (0) 160pt(9PL)
Techno-virus Injector (0) Frag/Krak Grenades (0) Bolt Pistol (0) Mechatendrils (0)
Mark of Slaanesh

DETACHMENT 2: Air Wing Detachment +1CP

LEGION: Brazen Beasts

FLYER

Heldrake (120) Heldrake Claws (17) Baleflamer (20) Mark of Khorne 167pt(9PL)

Heldrake (120) Heldrake Claws (17) Baleflamer (20) Mark of Khorne 167pt(9PL)

Heldrake (120) Heldrake Claws (17) Baleflamer (20) Mark of Khorne 167pt(9PL)

Mission: Beachead (1 VP hold your objective, 2 VP middle, 3 VP your opponents at start of your turn) and Visions of Victory (draw 2 for each, your opponent picks one and discards. Secret objectives is absolutely insane in this mission).
Terrain: not really much of anything. Bastion in the centre, some small ruins in corners and other terrain that didn’t matter.

My game plan was basically to show up, kill the disco lords, touch the dreads, take middle/backfield objective and...hopefully ignore the helldrakes, contest them in backfield if possible, otherwise just make sure they’re not killing all my characters.

Deployment: I deployed all my blips back towards my DZ corner with my objective EW, as well as terms back towards.
He deployed pretty evenly across his DZ, helldrakes across, then disco lords, then dreads, with his objective EW also in far back corner.
Other objectives his mid DZ on the right flank, mine right DZ and another my back corner.
I went first, for the only time in the tournament.


T1: I shuffled, scored some objectives.
His T1, he just shuffled his helldrakes to screen his DZ...well damn. Completely threw my game plan: I’d been expecting the helldrakes to go for my objective. This was partly just him reading the game better I think, but also just because I didn’t realise that helldrakes are still Flyers and can’t score, so he’d have gained very little by clearing my backfield (some KP and a 1 VP swing per turn, rather than what I was thinking was some KP, and then if I didn’t come and deal with that rather than the rest of his army, a 5 VP swing per turn plus potentially maelstrom).

T2: I had thought about this possibility, but didn’t really have a set game plan for it. Ended up basically going for it anyway, which was...probably an OK play. I just also managed to stuff up the execution as well . Will want to go over this turn, alternatives etc in detail, but first what I did.
Shuffled around backfield for objectives: showed up with everything, Characters on central objective with 2 saw squads and a normal 20 man spread out around. PA 1 saw squad on the left flank to try and charge his WL disco lord. Also show up with demo on left flank (did consider right flank for objective, but couldn’t hold it) to demo his WL, and just generally have more bodies to threaten. Also manage to do only 2 MW to my magus with psychics: no negs on disco lords to mitigate exploding attacks, no might to secure the kills on the helldrakes/disco lords. Kelermorph and demo charges knocked the WL disco lord down to 3 wounds, which was way more than I was expecting. Went to charge his WL disco lord, realised that...he was out of charge range, even with the PA. I’m not sure on the exact roll, but I think I needed a 5 or 6. So they just went after helldrakes. The 20 man charged a helldrake. And the last saw squad on the right flank...failed their charge. And they could actually charge a disco lord, so...Ended up killing the leftmost helldrake, middle helldrake charged by the 20 man lived on 1 wound .
His T2, he basically just picked up all the acolytes, mostly with the dreads. One of the discolords charged the flamer squad to kill them: ended up with 1 acolyte left out of LoS. He made some (minor) errors that I only realised later (shot with pistol and autocannon for rerolls: meh), but not a big deal. He just had the firepower to kill all my stuff, and the disco lords to finish anything left over in threat range.

T3: Welp, kill stuff is gone. To objectives! Bounce my 1 aco to protect the KP and try and give me objective options for next turn. Dropped my 17 man in the backfield to PA and charge to steal one of his objectives, grab EW, and hostage to make it more difficult to deal with. Probably shifted screens around as I could, but too far away to really block charges: possibly could’ve metabolliced to really protect Characters and my hold on the midfield objective? Smite to kill the wounded helldrake, MO was out of range to finish off his WL without being in LoS and guaranteed dead.
He moved up with the disco lords to charge the Characters, strat to shoot out my aco squad. Unfortunately, 1 CP short to Generations . Ended up living with 2 on objective, hiding my Characters and 2 CP to hold and keep the objective for 3 VP. 2 Disco lords into my Characters (and possibly BB hanging around?), only managed to kill my iconward: patty lived on a couple of wounds. Stuck back, knocked him down pretty low.

T4: Not much happened, finish off the almost dead disco lord, do some damage to the last helldrake.

Between my turn combat and his turn, kill off all my Characters bar clamavus and neos.

T5: Finish off helldrake with neos (kill a Flier as well), not much scoring opportunities.

He kills off neos and terms

T6: Nadda

He actually managed to score some stuff this turn (or possibly last turn as well) regarding objectives, kills off a mortar squad.

End game, he had quite a swing in VP T5/6, both in actually being able to score maelstrom, and also had the midfield objective for T5/6 scoring as well. Ended up being fairly close, but he had quite a few KP, so ended up being 4-16.
Also, notice something missing? Yeah, completely forgot about my final aco squad: had planned on doing objective stuff with 2/3 CP strats, but with no CP, that plan was out the window. And then I just forgot about them: could’ve come in T4, and potentially won me the game. Or not: was almost certainly an 8” charge, and very dead next turn, possibly for free compared to what actually happened. Still, that was a 50% chance to make it, at the very least, even closer than it was, and I should’ve remembered that.

Anyway, other overall stuff. The general idea was still OK, holding the centre objective for VP etc while killing stuff as I could. But, even with that, I should’ve at least PA’d to threaten the disco lord, since it’s more important than the helldrake. Killing the WL would’ve been better, but that wasn’t possible. Even more than that, I should’ve dropped a squad in his backfield, PA’d that and charged into the dreads to, as my game plan was, tie them up and stop shooting. This also played to the objective more, since I had the ‘steal’ cards that I scored T3. Cut shooting, Generations shoot into combat to make sure that only 3 (possibly 2!) dreads could’ve shot, disco lords are then required to kill off a lot of aco squads, with some refill. If I’d only had the 1 saw squad to try and clear out the helldrakes, the other as refill to finish off the disco lords with whatever lived? A lot of threat: still very bloody, but even if it would’ve played out where he killed my everything again? This line almost certainly gave me more VP T2/3, him a bit less, and hopefully not get the kills quick enough to have the swing VP T5/6.
One of the other lines of play would be to just play the massive advantage I had in maelstrom: take my cards where I could, he doesn’t really get any cards. The issue with this line, is that I still have to drop T3, and while it plays better to maelstrom, it’s worse for EW. No midfield objective scoring T3, and he has potential options to try and push me off the midfield objective/take it himself. Of course, this was still better than the line I took: if he pushed me off, I would almost certainly have been able to take more advantageous charges instead. And even though I’m not scoring EW, it would’ve at worst been just one less ‘effective’ turn (effectively finishing as the T5 board state instead of the T6 board state). With the maelstrom advantage especially, that’s going to come out in my favour. But, I think the above line of play would’ve been better? I dunno. But especially if I didn’t have the massive maelstrom advantage that I did: being more threatening sooner would also be better for the rest of my objective pressure in the gaunts etc.

Game 5: Plaguebearers with bloodletters and plageue drones. Similar to Game 3, there’s not much to say here. I can go over this in detail if people want, but I don’t think there’s much take away here. He didn’t know how to play into me well (and I just don’t think he knew how to play his list that well: didn’t hold objectives aggressively, letting me contest them). I deployed in blips with most of my stuff, he got first and moved up. I PA’d, charged the plague drones with both squads thanks to stim, then basically locked the plaguebearers in combat in his DZ with constant might, primus, iconward and just ground them out. Other squads showed up to kill his other plaguebearer squad and deny his bloodletters anywhere at all to go.

[No One]

Had a 2k tournament...a few weeks ago now, most comp in the area with about 60 players. Ended up 4-2 with mostly GSC acolyte spam, which I was pretty happy with considering how many fliers/fly/charge negs there were...Only going to do bat reps for a couple of the games. Rest were pretty standard and I'm not exactly making strides with writing these up as it is.

My list:

SPOILER: Click to show

List:
Battalion (Four Armed Emperor) (Vigilus: Broodsurge)
HQ Primus 75
HQ Iconward 53
Elite Nexos 50
Elite Clamavus 55
Troops Acolytes (20, 3 saws, banner) 180
Troops Acolytes (20, 3 saws, banner) 180
Troops Acolytes (20, banner) 150
Troops Acolytes (20, banner) 150
Troops Acolytes (15, banner) 115

Battalion (Four Armed Emperor) (Vigilus: Annointed)
HQ Magus (Familiar, Relic: crouchling) 92
HQ Patriarch (Familiar) (WL) 137
Elite Aberrants (10, 8 picks, 2 signs) 252
Troops Acolytes (16, 15 hand flamers, 1 demo charge) 132
Troops Brood Brothers (10) 40
Troops Brood Brothers (10) 40

Battalion (Kraken)
HQ Neurothrope 90
HQ Neurothrope 90
Troops Termagants (11) 44
Troops Termagants (10) 40
Troops Rippers (3) 33

Total: 1998

Game 1: 4 knights, easy first game. Showed up, killed 2, scored. Showed up, killed the other 2, tabled him T3.

Game 2:

SPOILER: Click to show

Battalion Detachment
HQ
Kayvaan Shrike
Lieutenant with Jump Pack and Ebonclaws
Troop
Intercessor Squad (7 bolt rifles)
Intercessor Squad (10 auto bolt rifles)
Incursor 5
Heavy Support
Eliminator Squad
Flyers
Stormtalon Gunship
Stormtalon Gunship
Battalion Detachment
HQ
Librarian in Phobos Armour
Primaris Chaplain
Troop
Incursor 5 Models
Incursor 5 Models
Incursor 5 Models
Elite
Primaris Ancient: WL (Ambush and Swift and Deadly). Artificer
Aggressor Squad (6 boltstorm)
Redemptor Dreadnought
Total Points 2000

Mission: End game for EW, draw cards for each objective you hold at the start of your turn for maelstrom. Hammer and Anvil deployment.
Table had two small LoS blocking ruins in both DZ corners, a skyshield midfield and another small LoS blocking ruin right flank, as well as some missile silo in the front middle of my DZ: tall enough to be LoS blocking for some stuff, but not to actually make a difference and basically just ended up getting in my way.
Objectives were back left my DZ, left midfield, right midfield, back centre his DZ, somewhere around the centre and front centre of his DZ, and...midfield close to my DZ. (I think...it's been a bit).
I got to deploy first: pushed gaunts close up to the line for objectives. Neuros back behind silo with gaunts daisy chained around. Deployed patty in blips along with normal 2 acos and aberrants: took amulet, wanted the charge option if he deployed up and I got first.
He deployed redemptor on his objective, eliminators on one of his ruins, 5 man intercessor other. 10 man on the line, and incursors spread along midfield.
He seized, and infiltrated the aggressors up midfield.
(A few mistakes here which I'll go into later)
T1: He moved up with the planes, shot up all my gaunts and some of the BB. Possibly killed a neuro as well.

I then bounced patty with RttS, since I had basically nothing to screen him with.

T2: Mopped up most of the rest of my stuff with fliers (I think a neuro alive and that was it), libby teleported to my back left objective and killed nexos.

Since patty was RttS'ed, I basically had to hard commit. He wasn't screening the aggressors at all, so easy charge target. Patty PA'd, 2 CPed into a 2 (if I remember correctly). Showed up with saws and a 20 man, 17 man to charge the libby, as well as a flamer squad to bait auspex and contest his objectives. Unfortunately, what I thought was a 5 man squad was 10 man with the 3 shots, so they died. Hyp went off on aggressors. Which was good, because patty failed the charge. With a CP reroll of a 1 into a 1 pr something (needing a 2, possibly 3). This was a theme over the tournament. Saw squad made the charge on the aggressors and one incursor, other went and charged another (trying to contest objective) and hostaged on the third.
(There was a bit of messiness here, since there were mines everywhere, but I also don't think I played this right.)

17 man failed the charge on the libby. Saw squad picked up the aggressors and intercessors, pretty sure only just with draw, did nothing with the other 20 man because of casualties making hostaging and daisy chaining difficult. Note I think this was a misplay, and should've harder committed to a different line, not the multiple lines I tried to take (hostage, minesweeper, and objective holder): ended up not having the models to contest his objective (actually forgot they had ob sec, which didn't help), especially after counter punch basically leaving me with dregs.

T3: Fliers and assorted kill off the acolytes. Shrike comes over to say hi, kills my iconward with pistols (2 unquestionings, CP reroll, and 4 FNP all failed ). Also a smash cap hanging around: I don't think they charged, might've failed?

I draw my second card, yay! Patty decides that he doesn't want to tangle with Shrike and smash cap, full tilts to his backfield. Show up with aberrants and remaining acolytes: aberrants in around midfield to charge backline with PA, acolytes at the front of my DZ with Characters.
Acolytes proceed to whiff every charge (I think I once again CP'd a 1 into a 1), aberrants make and start making a mess of his backline with patty. Kill some stuff, hostage some stuff, the normal.

T4: Picks up the acolytes and most of the remaining Characters. Aberrants and patty kill off his chaplain, aberrants still in combat with ancient and intercessors.

Final turn, so patty goes and charges the intercessors to see if I can get that kill: he doesn't, and aberrants also just fail to kill the ancient (who was also WL, which I forgot about). Hold one end game objective with the aberrants (which was an awkward daisy chain), but he was actually scoring, and held more at the end as well. Resounding 0-20.

Overall, made a few misplays and wasn't able to do much on the mission. Ultimately I think I wasn't in a strong enough position where I could afford to fail that many charges, and I don't know what I could've done to protect iconward. But I likely could've at least had a closer game.

Deploying patty was probably ambitious. I wanted something to punish hyper aggression with the aggressors if I went first. But I'm not sure I could've pulled it off well, since it would've likely been awkward/impossible to hostage something else, and at that point patty's dead along with the squad. The better play going first would've just to punish the incursors with PA'd aberrants, which doesn't need patty. Move block aggressors with gaunts so I've still got somewhere to DS, and go from there. Would've meant I didn't need to drop T2, and could've just charged/hostaged the incursors with aberrants if he was more conservative.

The aggressive gaunts was definitely a misplay: even going first, I gained very little benefit from holding objectives, since it was end game and I'd only have a single maelstrom card. Should've just had them back, made sure Characters survived and I could hold my objective backfield.

Lastly, should've just killed the 2 incursors with the 20 man on the first drop. Not quite sure I'd have had the damage though, and would've almost 100% died to shock assault counter punch though, so I'm not 100% this was the play, but I think it would've worked out better. He didn't quite have the firepower with the aggressors dead to kill all the squads and the Characters, which is the main reason I was hostaging anyway. Combined with his jump guys bypassing screening anyway? Just kill his scoring, would've been more even, and only 2 fliers and assorted stuff to really kill mine. Likely sufficient for end game, but would've been slower to let me actually score...

[viral]

I had to create an account to reply. Ive always appreciated your feedback here No One. I was sad when I came in this tosee last post it's GSC. Where the Tyranid armies at?

[No One]

Thanks for that! After their release in 7th, GSC has been my favourite army. Early 8th, they just didn't work: but with Codex I've gone fully on board again. Was getting a bit burnt out with 'nids, and (until marines...) I thought I actually had a chance at winning tournaments here with GSC.

With PA, I'll be trying out some more nid stuff, but will depend on how many games I can actually get as to whether that's just hive guard with the GSC: I do want to try out some of the potential DS options we've got now, but there's also a couple of potential tournaments in Feb with missions I'm not familiar with, and GSC's still the better tournament army I feel.

[viral]

Awesome thanks for reply. I've purchased probably half my army because of your lists over the last few years. Gotta have that! Since age 12 I always said id own a Nid army. 20 yrs later, never too late.

[No One]

Had a game against IH dreads, first proper game with ITC (and first full stop with my GSC). My list:

SPOILER: Click to show

Battalion (Four Armed Emperor) (Vigilus: Broodsurge)
HQ Patriarch (Familiar) (WL) 137
HQ Iconward 53
Elite Nexos 50
Elite Clamavus 55
Troops Acolytes (20, 3 saws, banner) 180
Troops Acolytes (20, 3 saws, banner) 180
Troops Acolytes (20, banner) 150
Troops Acolytes (15, banner) 115


Battalion (Four Armed Emperor) (Vigilus: Broodsurge)
HQ Patriarch (Familiar) 137
HQ Primus 75
Troops Acolytes (15, 15 hand flamers) 120
Troops Acolytes (15, banner) 150
Troops Brood Brothers (10) 40


Battalion (Kronos)
HQ Neurothrope 90
HQ Neurothrope 90
Troops Termagants (13) 52
Troops Rippers (3) 33
Troops Rippers (3) 33
Elites Hive guard (6) (-1 CP Adaptation) 258

Total: 1998

Variant on my previous lists, trying out double patriarch, since a magus does...not much, unless GK/TS start becoming meta, in which case maybe? Loses out on some versatility in WLTs/extra squad, but overall pretty happy with the swap.

His list (approx):

SPOILER: Click to show

Brigade (Master artisans, stealthy. IH successor)
HQ: Techmarine (WL, Ironestone: Master of the forge, WLT for +1 to hit)
Librarian (master librarian. Psysteel, reforge, +1 to hit)
Smash cap
Chaplain dread (twin las, claw) (+1 to wound)
Elite: Leviathan (storm cannon, claw)
Relic contemptor (twin las, claw)
4 servitors
Troops: 2xscouts (cc/pistol
4xintercessors
HS: Redemptor (onslaught). Extra WLT, 5+ FNP (which I don’t think he ever remembered)
2xthunderfires
FA: 3 man interceptor (assault HB)
3 man suppressors
Attack bike
(Or something like that)

Mission was
His secondaries were reaper, butchers bill and headhunter
Mine were recon, butchers bill and poison (attack bike, interceptors, contemptor and librarian). Wasn’t too happy with my 3rd, but couldn’t think of anything better to do there. Knowing how he often plays, I could’ve possibly taken one of the TFCs as the vehicle, and maybe captain as Fly? Anyway, thoughts from someone more experienced with ITC are welcome.

Deployment: Spearhead (pointy hammer and anvil). Relatively central fortress as a large BLOS, LoS blockers in each corner, some other smaller terrain pieces around (mostly cover, though one smaller LoS blocker as well in what ended up being my DZ). He picked the one with the better LoS blocker, I deployed first.
He deployed fairly far back in DZ: dreads front and centre, intercessors on either flank.
Rusty with alternating deployment, so I misjudged his drop count and ended up dropping my hive guard earlier than I should’ve (i.e. before his scouts and last intercessor, the main things I want to kill). He was deployed fairly back in his DZ and the LoS blockers in my DZ were too far back to threaten anywhere. So I deployed my hive guard aggressively forward, wanting to use the fortress as LoS blocker. I could possibly have deployed further back and used the small LoS blocker that was more central in my DZ, but I’m not sure that would have blocked anything at all (maybe from an angle where the fortress blocked the rest?). Further on this later.
Rest of my stuff around objectives or up with hive guard to try and block LoS with the fortress. His scouts ended up forward, just out of his DZ, so could have deployed the HG further back and still had range on them. Other intercessor was deployed on the flank to get LoS to the HG. With dev stalkers .

T1: He moved up with the dreads, angling for coming around the shorter side of the fortress. Double tapped TFC with tremor on gaunts and HG, stalker+TFC killed 1 HG, dropped gaunts to 1 guy. No kill, hold.

My T1: I move up with HG, but can’t quite get close enough to the fortress to cut off the angle for his dreads . Still, onslaught+symbio+double tap to drop both of his scouts. Butchers+kill/more+hold/more.

T2: This is where things hurt. Moved up his leviathan, now had range and LoS to my hive guard. Assorted other stuff (redemptor, some stalkers) had LoS to neuros as well. Moved up with most of his other stuff, attack bike on centre objective. Went about as you’d expect: lost everything important. Still had a unit of rippers and nexos (and possibly a unit of BB/2nd rippers?). Butchers, 2 headhunters, kill, hold.

My T2: Attack bike was a really nice hostage target, but wasn’t sure what else I could do. Ended up dropping 2 squads with support to charge the attack bike on the opposite side from the dreads: ensured that I could pretty reliably get the hostage, gave me good board control for next turn, and let me take 2 objectives for bonus, as well as getting recon and one of them had a charge on an intercessor unit. But I also dropped a 3rd squad with PA in the backline, which...I dunno. I wanted to do something with them, so that things were harder to clear if I didn’t get both hostages (PA squad could touch/hostage the TFC), ensured I got recon, and confirmed the kill on the intercessors. But...possibly something better they could have done. Gone after the interceptors (awkward forest and on the other flank with the dreads, but could’ve maybe forced him to split his forces)? Or just chilled, but that makes next turn way more awkward.
Could have beens aside, made all the charges, killed the intercessors, hostaged a TFC (techmarines are annoying) and killed the intercessors. Didn’t confirm a 2nd kill, so didn’t get butchers. Kill, hold, hold more, bonus and recon. He gets kill more.

T3: Everything important was in combat: moved the leviathan up to kill a unit of rippers in my backline (which was definitely a mistake by him), interceptors also moved into my backline, but didn’t really do anything because the leviathan killed the rippers.
Counter charged my everything: squad on TFC died horribly to intercessors (and smash cap?), 20 man dropped to 4 from dreads counter charge, 15 man spread over central objectives only lost a couple. Killed the attack bike (probably a mistake and should’ve just held it to confirm butchers/kill on my turn, wasn’t really making things that much more difficult).

My T3: Moved up patriarchs on his chaplain dread dropped the remaining squads. One saw squad went after the TFC/intercessors again: again, not sure about this, the TFC are brutal until I hostage and they’re not. But, I don’t think there was anywhere else for them to fit usefully, especially if I wanted a hostage. Had wanted them to go after his remaining objective and the intercessors on that, but couldn’t quite fit due to the servitors in his back corner. Everything else dropped with characters to try and kill dreads: chaplain was an easy charge, but contemptor was more difficult, with the remains of the white squad blocking. Flamer went and hostaged the redemptor and libby next to it (was ironstoned and buffed, so I didn’t think I had any chance of killing), wrapped around the back of the chaplain and killed the libby next to it, saw squad joined patriarchs on chaplain and tried to get some models on contemptor.

Draw on less important squad on the TFC/intercessors (though did get one guy into the contemptor), which I also just forgot about...Fought with both patriarchs (baiting duty eternal on chappy dread, who was in range of a bunch of acolytes so was fairly confident of the kill, and if I didn’t was a definite hostage with the flamers). He probably interrupted with something, didn’t kill anything important. Now, I fought with the flamers to try and kill chappy to clear a path for the saw squad: this was a mistake, as it was only a couple of flamer acos (and no banner) and the chappy still had a few wounds remaining (~3-4 I think). Killed libby, hostaged redemptor, but failed to kill chappy. Saw squad then murder chaplain dread, did a couple of wounds to contemptor, and couldn’t do anything useful because of patriarchs/white squad in the way. If I had instead fought with them first to kill the chaplain dread, the flamers would have been able to hostage the contemptor, letting me either kill it, or keep all of my guys ‘safe’ in combat. Squad at the TFC again wasn’t used well, failing to kill the intercessors (down to 2. Edit: May have actually killed them and might be misremembering as next turn?), because I put attacks into TFC which I then hostaged and was next to techmarines: that said, it was awkward positioning and I’m not sure I physically could have done more damage there, bar not throwing the 1 saw who could fit into the contemptor (which was poison, bear in mind). Counter punch kills some assorted acolytes, meh. End up with butchers, kill, hold/more and recon. He gets kill more (by 1 if I remember correctly).

Of course, as with the previous turn, I could’ve maybe gone elsewhere with the squad that went after the TFC: this would basically have involved going for the servitors for a more reliably kill to go for kill more (but no real impact on game state, and if I kill the intercessors and contemptor it achieves similar), or the interceptors. In hindsight, this may have been the choice? But the interceptors weren’t hugely relevant on game state further, merely helping to clear out my backline (which TFC would’ve happily done if uncontested), would either eat auspex or need 3 CP to generations, and while they kill on average, I’m not sure how reliable that would be. Then they’ve got no hostage target and die horribly to shooting, though in hindsight they maybe could’ve forced the leviathan away from the combats to draw LoS on them? Pretty eh on this. Also alternative play would’ve been to regen the whites to try and get back coherency and hostage the contemptor dread (or outright leave combat to allow the other squads through, but would’ve been awkward to impossible without bringing a fair few back, and also would mean I’d eat overwatch. Not a huge deal for those dreads, but still).
Overall OK turn, but I 100% could’ve played this better.

T4: Not too much went on this turn: moved out with contemptor, moved up the intercessors and a bunch of other stuff to charge the saw squad on the TFC. Smash cap moved over to charge my flamer squad on the redemptor. Leviathan moves over to charge flamers as well. Shooting kills my saw squad that couldn’t hostage, what a surprise. Kills some flamers with leviathan, I interrupt with the saw acolytes on TFC: end up killing a techmarine, some intercessors (possibly previous squad and some from chargers, or just some from chargers depending on how that actually happened) and the servitors. Kills most of the rest of my acolytes, but still some left on the saw squad next to TFC, so maybe that was the correct play, and it was just other stuff that were misplays. Also kills some of my backline stuff with the interceptors. He gets kill, hold, butchers. I also get butchers.

My T4: felt I had to make some plays at this point. Regen remaining saw squad to get the contemptor...1 . Characters wander around to grab objectives for hold more/recon. Patriarchs move up to charge dreads and smite out captain. Smite does 1 wound, flamers do another to drop him to 1. Patriarchs charge, WL fails to kill either redemptor or WL, redemptor interrupts to just fail to kill other patriarch (was a bit messy here due to me mishearing), other patriarch fails to kill contemptor. And then saws squad piles in on it, and drops it to 1 wound (possibly kill a TFC/techmarine? Can’t remember if I got kill or not). Disappointing turn here, definitely mishandled the patriarch charges and should’ve just focused on getting a kill on something: either try and confirm the kill on the captain with smites, or just dump all the attacks into him and don’t let the redemptor fight: not sure I could’ve hit the contemptor with the other patriarch and stayed out of range of the redemptor though, unfortunately. Recon, hold, hold more and maybe kill. Fail to get butchers and unfortunately couldn’t get bonus due to having lost one of my backfield objectives to the interceptors. He gets kill.

T5: He kills the patriarchs and acolytes, about it. Kill, hold, maxed all secondaries at this point.

My T5: I kill the captain with a lucky grenade from the clamavus. Hold, (hold more?), he gets kill more.

T6: He kills everything else. Kill, kill more, hold, hold more.

End game: 29 vs 27 to him: he maxed secondaries, I got 3 for recon and butchers and 2 for poison. Overall, felt that it does fine in ITC. Losing the hive guard really hurt, but on the flip side I made all of my charges, so...It’s got the killing power to get kills and kill based secondaries, but has difficulty going after specific targets and confirming kills without the hive guard. Hold/hold more and bonus are relatively easy, but is still reliant on either hostages or murder to maintain those and without the neuros/hive guard doesn’t have the backfield staying power to hold those objectives for bonus if anyone goes after those/has TFC. And of course hostaging against marines is a bit ouch, but you don’t need to use it to survive indefinitely, just long enough. Case in point, if I’d had the hive guard to get the missing butchers/poison/kill or a kill more, I’d have drawn or won (to say nothing of improving game state to hang around for another turn).
Still don’t think it has the best game into, say, fliers and AP-3 really hurts the hive guard (though cat can mitigate).