2k Back to the Hierophant

[tomb]

Oct 5, 2021 4:59:44 GMT zimko said:

Here are some pictures showing that the Hierophant can fit on the table and inside any standard deployment zone. These are mine, including some action shots at a tournament.

imgur.com/a/EsQuWHp

Great photos thank you. What event was it I recognise the Vanguard terrain?

What were you playing into on the snow board? Sisters, Necrons, AdMech it's hard to see, but it looks like the phant and swarmy did a number on the three units in the centre.

I'm tempted to cut my phant off its base to try it competativly. I regularly play on similar boards. Cheers!

[No One]

Pretty sure it's AdMech, you can see the terrax drill in the background.

[zimko]

Yes it was AdMech. The Hierophant's flamer at 2 damage did a number on their infantry. It also killed 2 aircraft on turn 1 with 4 damage shots.

That tournament was in Maryland at the Maryland Open. I also play in VA. Many of the shops in the nearby states have formed a Tournament Circuit and they all use the same terrain setup. (The middle piece counts as 'forest' but everything else is WYSIWYG).

[zimko]

I have a 3 round tournament this weekend. I'll try to remember to take pictures and post them. This shop does not have 'standard' terrain so it can be very hit or miss. It'll be a good test for the Hierophant to see how it handles in various terrain setups.

[zimko]

Tournament done. I placed 7th out of 24 with 2 wins and 1 loss. 94 points for each win and 59 for the loss.

imgur.com/a/Nw2gSAv

Game 1
Against the new Grey Knights. I had an advantage here because I'm already familiar with the new codex. He had a Grand Master Dreadknight with all the bells and whistles (3++ for a turn, teleport when targeted by shooting attacks, ob sec, etc.), 2 regular Dreadknights, 30 Intercepters, 3x5 strikes, 4 servitors, 5 Purgations with psycannons and draigo.

He made a mistake with his deployment by not really trying too hard to hide his Dreadknights from my shooting. So I managed to get LOS on 1 of them with the Hierophant on turn 1 when I went first. That easily killed a Dreadknight. I also sent the Dima directly into the Grand Master Dreadknight, forcing him to use his 3++ once per game ability. 1 attack made it thru and did 6 damage. The Dima then got smashed, but I felt like it was still a worthwhile trade just to get that 3++ out of the way and at least I did a good chunk of damage. On his turn, he threw a lot of shooting into the Hierophant but I was rolling pretty well with Feel No Pains from Catalyst.

On my turn 2, I deployed the genestealers to eat an intercepter unit that was nearing my side, and the Broodlord went for an interceptor unit that was on the middle objective. The Hierophant lumbered forward onto the middle objective and within charge range of the Grand Master Dreadknight. I spread out all my gaunts/gants to deny his deep strikers from arriving anywhere on my half of the board. The Hierophant killed the other regular Dreadknight and flamered the Purgations to death, then charged the Grand Master (I made sure not to shoot it so that it couldn't teleport away.). The Broodlord killed an interceptor squad, and the genestealers killed another, using overrun to get out of LOS of stormbolters (I also charged from out of LOS to avoid overwatch). The Hierophant managed to kill the Grand Master in melee.

After that it was mostly just cleanup. The Strike Squads came in and tried to charge the Hierophant but just got slaughtered on my next shooting phase. Draigo killed the Broodlord but then was flattened by the Hierophant after a single attack managed to get thru. It was a slaughter.

Game 2
Against Imperial Guard with a bunch of Scions (melta guns and plasma guns and hot-shot lasguns that deep strike), a bunch of conscripts and guardsman, 2 manticores, 1 mortar squad, 4 psykers.

Again, another game where my opponent made a mistake in deployment and I managed to use the fly keyword on the Hierophant to get an angle on a Manticore in turn 1. The Dima charged a line of conscripts, killing some and eating some to activate his Feel No Pain. Then on turn 2 he left combat, jumping over the conscripts, and killed the second Manticore. I zoned out most of the board for his scions. He split them up to try and kill the Dima and Hierophant at the same time but managed to not kill either, leaving the Dima at 7 wounds the Hierophant at 14. He conceded after that.

Game 3
Against a very experienced space marine player who I know well. He plays a vulkan relic dreadknaught, 3 contemptor dreads, a drop pod with 2 devestater squads of grav cannons, some infultraters and 2 landspeeders for Oath and Engage secondaries.

So this table was VERY dense terrain. I did not win the rolloff, but even if I did win it, there was literally nothing the Hierophant could see, even with a full move and standing on ruins. There was space for him to hide all dreadnaughts despite how big their bases are. But alas, he won the rolloff anyway. So get this... the Vulkan dreadnaught did 28 wounds to the Hierophant. He gets 2+ to hit with rerolling 1s, 6s explode. Then he has a 5+ to wound rerolling 1s, but 6s deal a mortal wound AND 6s count as additional wounds. He roll 8 6s to wound. So that's 8 mortals, and 16 wounds (I save half of them). Then he shoots some missiles and 2 of those get thru, doing d6 damage each. He rolls 10 damage on 2d6. The Contemptors then overkilled the Hierophant and the grav devestaters were left in the middle with no targets... so they charged some hormagaunts and wiped those out.

So uh, ya Hierophant dies very quickly. Then on my turn, I fail Onslaught, even with a reroll, leaving the Dima no choice but to use Hive Commander to retreat where he can't be shot. The genestealers get some kills but the contemptors managed to get LOS on them now that they could move freely. The Dima came out and cleared the droppod and stuff in the middle to get me another round of Direct Assault. The rest I hid until last turn and scored 15 on primary at end of game. I manage to squeak out 59 points. I do at least have decent mobility and on a board like this I can hide a bit. But eventually those dreads get LOS of my stuff and I die.

Not a bad showing. It's about what I expect. The Hierophant definitely feels better to me than the Harridan. I love having Genestealers and the Pyrovores inside. I maxed RoD every game with Pyrovores and Lictors. The pyrovores even managed to kill a few grey knights. Plus they helped screen the board from deep strikers.