Adeptus Titanicus - The Battle for Gate 7

Hello!

Back with some Adeptus Titanicus with The Claw (the_claw_74 on Instagram, do him a follow), and a fun narrative type game. The traitor forces of the Warmaster clash over a huge underground facility, the Proditor Manufactorum, on Esteban V in the Ultima Segmentum (not to be confused with Estaban III, home of the Legio Tempestus). Away from the front lines, Legio Magna lay claim to their recently conquered territory, but Legio Mortis demand the prize be ceded to them on grounds of seniority. Inevitably the titans walk, and the fate of Proditor Manufactorum will be decided at Gate 7.

So with the narrative determined, we built our forces and decided on the mission rules. We decided on 'a bit more than 1000 points' and both ended around 1085. As the Legio Mortis attackers, I took a fast moving, aggressive force with a Janissary maniple of two Warhounds and the new Reaver, with two banners of Questoris knights (one mine, one borrowed). The Legio Magna forces consisted of a Fortis maniple, with two Reavers and a Warlord. He definitely had more big guns than me, but I was hoping my speed would let me use the terrain and get outside of firing arcs.

Having not played much Titanicus recently (or at all), we kept it simple, with 5 turns, 12 inch deployment zones and an appropriate mission card each. As the attacker I selected Engage and Destroy, while The Claw picked Hold the Line, appropriately.

Titans on the table. I opted to overload the right flank, facing off against a melee Reaver, hoping my knights could march up the middle and draw some fire from the big guns at the back. Thanks to the raised centre of the board the terrain would prove to be quite effective at blocking line of sight.

In turn one Magna's big guns stayed back, while the melee Reaver charged up the middle. I moved my titans cagily around terrain to avoid most of the firepower. It proved effective as there was very minimal damage on the right flank.

With most of the firing solutions blocked, the first real shots in anger rang out from the Reaver's Gatling blaster and Volcano cannon, destroying one of my Knights.

Turn 2 and the melee Reaver failed a command check to Charge, instead moving forward right into all my guns. The Claw later said this was a big mistake, which it probably was, but I countered by moving my Reaver right into a clean firing arc of the Warlord.

ENGINE KILL! Combined fire from the Knights and Vulcan/Turbo laser Warhound stripped the shields, before the Inferno/Plasma Warhound picked up the kill with shots to the back. My Reaver didn't even get to fire it's Melta cannon. It did however get absolutely lit up by the Warlord, putting critical damage on the body and causing the reactor to run hot after pushing the void shields.

New Model Syndrome in full effect in turn 3 when the Reaver fell to it's own overheating plasma reactor.

Elsewhere though turn 3 was for manoeuvring, with Knights and Warhounds using the Full Stride order to get out of Firing Arcs. One of the banners wasn't able to get that far though and got the full firepower of the Warlord at close range, but miraculously the Lord Scion survived.

Turn 4 was all about moving in for the kill. I had initiative so I was able to do damage first, but with no more table to run to, I wasn't able to completely avoid the Warlord. The Knights danced around the Reaver, while the Warhounds did their thing, the Vulcan Mega Bolter unleashing an absolute storm of fire, stripping 4 void shields off by itself, then finishing the job with the Turbo laser. The Plasma blastgun then put some serious hurt in on the mighty engine. To rub salt in the wounds, the Warlord was unable to strip the shields from the closest Warhound!

The Reaver did finally kill off one of the Knight banners, but the Warlord was weakened, and the game would probably be decided based on if the Warhounds could kill it or if it would destroy one of them.

In turn 5, First Fire orders on the Warhounds caused further damage, while the Warlord got unlucky again in failing to reignite it's Void Shields (even with Emergency Repairs). It's machine spirit was clearly upset, as it woke up while attempting to fire the Volcano Cannon, and caused the engine to stomp forward and smash into my Warhound instead.

Finally the Warhounds fired again, the Plasma/Inferno gun taking a chunk of damage from the legs, and then eventually the Vulcan Mega Bolter securing the ENGINE KILL with called shots to the kneecaps. A magazine detonation later and my last Knight was destroyed, but with both Warhounds standing right in the Legio Magna side of the board, this one ended as a convincing victory for Legio Mortis!

So there we have it. Gate 7 falls, and Legio Mortis now lays claim to the Proditor Manufactorum. I feel like we are starting to get our eyes in a bit for the rules, and with the game flowing a little more smoothly, Titanicus is absolutely a blast. We both had a great game, though we made mistakes, I feel lessons were learned. I'd like to claim tactical genius, but I definitely got very lucky in this game, with The Claw's Warlord Titan particularly unlucky to fail several command checks, repair rolls and loads of void shield saves at first time of asking, and my rolling was pretty hot (overheating pun unintended.)

No doubt we will one day return to this place, and Legio Magna will be out for revenge... 

Grand Tournament Day 2

Hello!

Welcome back to the 40k Grand Tournament report, as we move onto day two. Day one is here, and my list is here. The Adeptus Mechanicus of Ryza and Taranis Imperial Knights continue on their quest to not be completely embarrassed in a relatively competitive setting, coming off two defeats and a victory in their recent encounters.

Game four was against Wayne with Chaos Knights. I forget most of the traitor names, but he had three 'crusaders', a 'preceptor' and one of each Armiger. They had a whole load of special rules that I largely forgot during the game, but there was a 4+ invulnerable one, one with a load of 'Freeblade' type rules and they all had +1 to hit in melee on the first round. The mission was Lockdown, and we had the corners deployment.

I took first turn, but Wayne was canny enough to deploy out of range of my Destroyers and the Valiant, so it was largely a turn of moving and some ineffectual fire from the Crusader. I did get my infantry out onto plenty of objectives which would put me ahead on points early on.

The Chaos Knights moved up to respond and opened fire. The Helverin and the big laser on the Desecrator (I think) melted most of the Destroyers, but the rest of the fire was fairly ineffectively poured into the Valiant. Lady Helena stood tall and her mount, The Defiant Flame, once again lived up to it's name. 

Speaking of flames, Helena charged forward and started spreading fire across the front rank of Traitor Knights, not killing any of them but reducing two below half wounds. Thanks to the Valiant soaking all the fire, I still had plenty of infantry to hold objectives and go further ahead on points.

In Wayne's turn, I got another stroke of luck as the Despoiler failed it's 'freeblade' leadership test (in spite of a CP reroll), forcing it to charge the closest target and be hitting on 6s with shooting. Elsewhere shooting did some damage but my knights were still standing. At the end of turn 2 the first full unit finally died as the Despoiler turbo-murdered a tech-priest Enginseer on an objective.

More Knight action in my turn, the Valiant and Crusader did some mopping up on the two damaged 'Crusaders', killing both (including one with the Thundercoil Harpoon!) My Armiger also did good, killing it's evil twin Warglaive. At this point I was way ahead on points so Wayne went for killing stuff...

The Armiger got sliced in half by the Despoiler (it did 30 wounds!), and some shooting did some serious damage to my big knights. I forget the exact details but I think the Valiant fell and got back up again, and then at some point there was a big explosion. As you can see there was a big pile of knights in the middle!

Eventually my forces cleared up the table, earning me a convincing win. This was a real fun, if short game. Wayne's big robots looked proper evil, and I enjoyed seeing some of their fun weird rules. Having infantry and loads of command points definitely gave me the edge in this scenario, but I also got a good chunk of luck with Helena's heroics. This also gave me two wins which means I was pretty satisfied no matter what happened next. (And I was even more satisfied after a cheeky carvery for lunch!)

Game 5 was against Andrew and more Knights! This time Imperial, using Hawkshroud, and bringing a Valiant! (#rightdominus). He took the Valiant, (with Ion Bulwark and the Traitor's Pyre, naturally), a Gallant, two Crusaders and Inquisitor Greyfax. Andrew was 'fresh' off the LVO the previous weekend, so he was bringing a jet lag friendly list. The mission was Crusade and we had the quartered deployment zone again.

Andrew was due to go first, and he told me he'd been seized on three times already. So of course I seized the initiative. This was really good for me because I had nowhere to hide my Destroyers and I was sure they weren't going to survive first turn. I immediately powered them up and knocked 18 wounds off a Crusader. Elsewhere my Knights did a chunk of damage off the Gallant. I think I got a little unlucky not to kill either of these targets. I chose not to shoot the Valiant, mainly because I thought it'd be really cool to have a Valiant fight! I also pushed out to grab several objectives for the next turn.

The Hawkshroud Knights did more or less as expected, and mostly deleted the Destroyers. I lost a fair few infantry but the Skitarii held firm on several objectives. Greyfax used a psychic power to give my Valiant -1 to hit for the turn. Then the charge phase, the fully operational Crusader charged the Armiger (finishing it off from shooting), and the Gallant used the large, line of sight blocking terrain piece in the center of the board to charge the Valiant without taking overwatch!

I believe Helena fell once again, but I played 'Our Darkest Hour' and she got back up. In my turn with Machine Spirit Resurgent she was fighting on the top profile, but at -1 from the pesky Inquisitor. My Knights killed off the Gallant and the wounded Crusader, but that left the other two knights largely untouched.

In Andrew's following turn Helena was finally brought down, and Camulus, in the Crusader, suffered damage. He also put a lot of fire into my infantry, blasting me off objectives and giving himself a probable lead at the start of his next turn. With my assets greatly diminished, I had to kill off at least one Knight in my turn to stand a chance. Camulus blasted the Crusader, damaging it significantly. Then I charged, but Andrew had saved enough CP to use the Hawkshroud stratagem and overwatch with the Valiant. The flamer reduced my Crusader to 10 wounds, then the Thundercoil Harpoon hit!

A wound and a failed save, and the Crusader was destroyed! I had two CP left and not much else, so I made it explode! With nothing really to speak of left, we talked out the last few turns, I had a chance to try and finish off the Crusader with my Tech-priests' Eradication rays, but it was not to be. Victory for Hawkshroud, a loss for the forces of the Omnissiah.

Another fun but quick game, played in absolutely the right spirit. Knights do tend to produce a lot of epic moments, but they are very swingy it seems. Andrew was convinced I'd take it after I seized, but I sure proved him wrong! I think if I'd been 4/0 at the start of this game I'd have prioritised killing the Gallant and then the Valiant, and probably held back a bit more with my Knights as well, but we both really wanted to see Valiants do cool stuff, and they did! I'd witnessed two knights killed by Thundercoil Harpoons in one day, so I was pretty happy with that! That said, with two short games on day 2 I did slightly regret taking a low model count army. With the three hour rounds I definitely could have played something with a lot more models and got more 40k for my money!

So in the end, 2 wins and 3 losses, I think is a respectable return. Fairly happy with how my army performed, most of it did more or less as expected. Overall I came somewhere in the 70s out of 91 players, which I was a little disappointed about, because I'd not picked up any favourite game votes. I think all my games were fun and my opponents all seemed to have a laugh, so I can only assume that it's an indication of the overall quality of games at the weekend that each of my opponents had other, even more fun games. I certainly didn't hear much of any of the sort of behaviour favourite game votes are supposed to stop, so I guess it did it's job even if I didn't directly benefit in the rankings.

More importantly of course I had a great time. It was a real fulfilling hobby experience, with five great opponents, lots of awesome armies on display, meeting up with some discord folks, chatting with other gamers and even an overall tournament victory for an Ork army! WAAAAGH! Even if you are only a tiny little bit competitive, like me, I definitely recommend the Warhammer World tournaments. Everyone I spoke to had a great time and it was just an awesome friendly atmosphere. It really felt like we were all there to have a good time, not just to win.

Grand Tournament Day 1

Hello!

As you may well know by now (or have guessed from the title), I attended the Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament at Warhammer World recently. I took my AdMech and Knights (list can be found here) and had a great time! I was intending to write a longer battle report for each game, but I didn't stop to take as many pictures as I should have, and I've already started to forget some details, so I'm doing a post for each of the two days instead, with a shorter summary report of each battle.

In case anyone is a new reader here and doesn't know - I'm not captain competitive. I love playing 40k and I like to think I'm pretty experienced at the game in general, but I'm not a meta chaser and I'll always default to taking units that look cool or are fun over the most optimal ones. I built a list that I thought was reasonably tough, but I had no intention of going for the top tables. Realistically I was aiming for 2 or 3 wins out of 5 games to consider it a 'successful' event.

First game was against Dave, who brought a pure Dark Eldar list. He had a battalion of Archons, Warriors in Venoms and two Ravagers with the ignore cover trait, a vanguard of Urien and three units of two Talos with 4+ invulnerables and a Wych flyer wing with two Razorwings and a Voidraven who got +1 to wound against things with 10+ wounds. It was an interesting list with a bit of everything, and no annoying Vect stratagem. The mission was Scorched Earth.

We deployed on the short edges, and I held back a little back, wary of a long bomb turn 1 Talos charge. Dave went first, and his flyers immediately screamed across the board. He also go forward with Talos and Venoms to hold the central objectives on his turn 2.

The turn 1 shooting was a bit of a whiff. The Knights came out largely unscathed, and my infantry were passing enough saves to make them annoying. The destroyers took a lot of firepower, but only two of them died.

In my turn I split fire all over the shop, destroying a Ravager and a Talos and putting a lot of damage onto the planes (I forget if I downed one this turn). However I didn't do enough to shift the Drukhari off the objectives, including with charges from the Valiant and the Armiger, so Dave started turn 2 with a lead.

Charging Lady Helena in the Valiant forward was a big mistake! Dave was able to wrap around her to stop her escaping, and stop me shooting him off the objective. Knights can walk over infantry, but not monsters. There were then many turns of ineffectual stomping and Talos attacks.

Elsewhere my infantry were getting cleared off the table, but Lord Camulus in the Crusader was doing good blasting Venoms and flyers out of the sky.

Eventually the Valiant was destroyed, and exploded, taking out a lot of Dark Eldar, including a Venom, which then exploded itself and killed some more. In the latter turns I was left with just the Crusader, but the battle cannon and avenger Gatling cannon were proving effective at splitting fire, and by turn 6 I had cleared everything off the board aside from a cowering Archon (the warlord). I'd killed a lot, but Dave had wracked (get it?) up the points and was comfortably ahead at the end.

A good game full of fun moments and a good opponent. Dave said this was his first tournament, so I wished him luck for the rest of the event. He played well and had a nice list, and I'm not sure where he ended up overall, but after day one he'd got 3 wins under his belt. I think we played this game in a good spirit (we resolved a couple of possible disputes with the classic 4+ method) and it set a great tone for the weekend. 

Game two was against John with a stunning Dark Angels army, that eventually was nominated for best painted. He has some really beautiful freehand work depicting the face of a lion on the three Repulsors and Leviathan. Oh, and he had three Repulsors and a Leviathan. Gulp. The list was rounded out with scouts, two units of intercessors, Azreal and a couple of lieutenants. The mission was four pillars, but it hardly mattered. John commented at the start that whoever got first turn was going to win, and I was inclined to agree with him. With the corners deployment zones, there was limited line of sight blocking terrain, so no real way to hide our big guns.

John got to deploy first and built a shooty castle. I pushed the Knights up as far as possible and hid the Destroyers as best as possible (which wasn't very well) and hoped to seize. I did not.

Splitting fire between the Crusader and my infantry, the Repulsors were deadly, while the Leviathan moved up and gutted the Destroyer unit with it's storm cannons. Some extra bad luck on top for me as the Crusader exploded, killing off several depleted units and being unable to get back up. I think the Dark Angels had killed off seven of my units. John felt guilty and bought me a pint after that.

So on my turn one it basically became Lady Helena vs the world. I continued, trying some long shots to claw back points, including trying to kill all the troops to get the 'hold more' objective with my one remaining Destroyer and nuking Azrael with a Shieldbreaker missile. Neither gamble worked, and to add salt to the wounds, the Valiant was unable to destroy the Leviathan (the half damage stratagem saving it from 5 wounds from the Thundercoil Harpoon.)

With no real chance at the game, the Valiant managed to show some fight (Lady Helena's mount is not known as the Defiant Flame for nothing) and survived a full shooting phase from all the Repulsors.

The mighty machine did eventually fall (I think to overwatch from a Repulsor) and promptly exploded, finally killing off the Leviathan, and that was that.

It was a bit of a one sided game, sadly, but it was fun nonetheless with Knights exploding and some heroics in the face of certain defeat. Also gave me a lot of time before the next game to complete the Instagram phase. 

The final game of the day was against Blood Angels, and a nice man who's name completely escapes me. (If you are reading this, I'm sorry! Please correct me in the comments!) His list was all infantry, with a high number of jump packs and literally half his army starting off the board. He had a couple of Intercessor squads, scouts, two Devastator squads, two Assault squads with meltas, a classic smash Captain, an assortment of buffing characters with jump packs, a 6 man Inceptor squad (jumpy dudes) and two units of 10 Vanguard Veterans all with power axes and storm shields (and a thunder hammer on the sergeant). We played Ascension, and I got first turn.

After turn two I'd killed most of his board presence without too many losses. His turn 1 was never going to be impressive, but he got unlucky with the firepower he did have. After my turn two I think he had the Inceptors and a squad of scouts left on the board, and I had plonked an Enginseer on the central objective to start building up the points. However, in his turn two the battle changed significantly...

I'd managed to screen out his larger units from my back lines, but the characters had found a gap behind my Crusader, the warlord, and were eyeing up the charge. The Vanguard Vets jumped in, one unit murdering some Skitarii and the other charging the Valiant from around a building to avoid the overwatch. The Inceptors stripped wounds off the Armiger and charged it. A bunch of characters made it in to Camulus in the Crusader, including the smash captain. With all the buffs, they managed to reduce the Crusader down to a few wounds (possibly just one), but didn't quite take it down. The Valiant also lost a chunk of wounds but was still fighting at full effectiveness.

In my turn it was panic mode. Time to kill as much as possible. Knights stepped back and opened fire. Storm shields were good though, I think I killed 4 Vanguard from one unit and wounded several of the characters. The captain was on one wound! I'd have to charge him... The Destroyers charged up with the servitor maniple stratagem and killed 8 Vanguard from the other unit, making that flank feel a bit safer.

In combat the warlord stomped on the Smash Captain, but I think was destroyed by one of the other characters, causing an explosion that killed them all!

It was a bloodbath around the board, but that Enginseer was still scoring points. The Blood angels managed to kill off the Armiger and the Destroyers (mostly due to the Inceptors), leaving me with the Valiant and a smattering of characters and infantry, but eventually it was enough to hold the objectives and kill off the remaining units (apart from the scouts hiding in a ruin all game). In the end it was a comfortable, though bloody victory for the Knights of Taranis and their Ryza allies.

Another fun game and a good way to round out the day with a win. The Blood Angels were really scary, but they didn't quite have the staying power to really threaten me on the points. It was also another lovely army with a lot of old school-style black and yellow markings on them, which was cool. I left Warhammer World at the end of the day feeling tired, but happy. I'd gotten the one win to pretty much ensure I wasn't dead last, and one more win in the next day would see me happily into 'somewhere in the middle' territory.

Welcome to Reuvengrad

Hello!

I've not just been getting excited about the GT recently, but also something at the very opposite end of the 40k scale of narrative - an all new series of battle reports with SorcererDave! This campaign though is going to be a bit different from what we did previously in The Battle of Morgan's Reach, in that we are dialing the narrative up even further, making a few more tweaks to the rules, and borrowing plenty from tabletop roleplaying games.

We filmed the first game this week, and it was a load of fun, so I really hope it's enjoyable for the viewers when it gets up to YouTube, as I'd like to do more! We did try to cut out a chunk of the unnecessary waffling, so I thought I'd write some companion articles to replace it and expand a bit on what is happening. This first one is merely an introduction to the setting and the characters of the Imperial forces, controlled by me. There's also some nice pictures in here, some I took, some taken by the Sorcerer himself. He also has some more info on the wider setting for his battle reports here.

The planet of Reuvengrad, only habitable world in the system of the same name, is a relatively unremarkable hive world within the Acheron sector. It is situated near to many active or recent warzones but not close enough to be considered currently under threat. A number of regiments are being raised for the Astra Militarum to fulfill and exceed the world's tithe quota, and Reuvengrad is expected to contribute men and munitions to Imperial war efforts in the Gulf of Athena for many decades to come.

Reuvengrad has long had issues with heretical cults springing up within it's underhives. The local enforcers and the Adeptus Arbites have so far been successful in shutting down these cults before they could spread significantly, but their persistence is apparently cause for concern by some. Several members of the holy ordos of the Inquisition have recently arrived on world, each for their own reasons, but apparently all linked to the cults.

Inquisitor Mortimer Arctos of the Ordo Hereticus was drawn to Reuvengrad by, of all things,  irregularities in the recorded movements of transport ships and their cargo. Regarding himself as a witch hunter, his experience told him that something didn't add up, and that it was evidence of something more malevolent than mere smugglers or thieves. Along with his retinue and faithful canid Alleb, he smelled heresy. He brings a force of Adepta Sororitas of the Order of the Azurine Heart with him to the planet.

Inquisitor Ivan Herric of the Ordo Malleus had a more unconventional tip off. He has no qualms with skirting the edge of radicalism and it was an interrogation of a daemon that revealed to him a grave threat on Reuvengrad. He has vowed to stop that threat, whatever form it may take, by any means necessary. He is accompanied by allies within the Adeptus Mechanicus, of both forge world Ryza and Imperial Knight house Taranis.

Inquisitor Deatrix Kane of the Ordo Xenos is a relative newcomer to the role, but she has already built up a network of contacts including some among the Adeptus Astartes and, allegedly, the Aeldari - who according to rumour provided a psy-boosting artifact to grant her psychic abilities. Her sources told her rumours of some great and powerful artifact hidden on Reuvengrad, possibly of alien origin, and she has come to investigate.

Upon arrival the trio of Inquisitors quickly found themselves contacted by a superior - Lord Inquisitor Octavian Vensk, who has been working covertly on planet for some time. Though keeping tight-lipped about his own investigations, he has tasked the makeshift conclave with eradicating the cult of the Bloody Sabbath. Their first order of business is to locate the headquarters and personally eliminate the cult's leaders. This is where the story begins...

40k Grand Tournament preview

Hello!

As I have been saying to anyone who will listen, I'm off to the GT Heat 1 at Warhammer World next weekend! I'm quite excited about it, even though I fully expect to spend most of my time around the bottom tables, it should be a fun weekend out with plenty of 40k in it. So, having finished off the last models I need and packed the army into it's case, I thought I'd write this 'preview' post with my list and some ruminations.

My most recent tournament experience went pretty well with the Alpha Legion, but I suspect the GT will be a bit of a step up, so I've put together a list that I think is a bit meaner. It's built around the list I took to the Element Games Grand Slam back in 2018, but focusing more on the Knights rather than the AdMech, and with more command points (though less robots). This means, at the very least, I kind of know what I'm doing with it. They are also probably my prettiest army (potato photography aside) so might get me some soft score favours there.

Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus, 2000 points, 14 Command Points.

Taranis Super Heavy detachment

Lord of War:

-Knight Crusader (Rapid fire battlecannon and heavy stubber, meltagun, Stormspear rocket pod) Warlord: Knight of Mars, Relic: Armour of Sainted Ion

-Knight Valiant (2 twin Siegebreaker cannons, 2 Shieldbreaker missiles) Exalted Court: Ion Bulwark

-Armiger Warglaive (Meltagun)

Ryza Battalion, specialist detachment: Servitor Maniple

HQ:

-Tech-Priest Dominus (Eradication ray, Macrostubber)

-Tech-Priest Dominus (Eradication ray, Macrostubber)

Troops:

-6 Kataphron Destroyers (Plasma culverins, phosphor blasters)

-5 Skitarii Vanguard (Alpha: Powersword)

-5 Skitarii Vanguard (Alpha: Arc maul)

Ryza Battalion

HQ:

-Tech-Priest Enginseer

-Tech-Priest Enginseer

Troops:

-5 Skitarii Rangers (1 Arc rifle)

-5 Skitarii Rangers (1 Arc rifle)

-5 Skitarii Rangers (1 Arc rifle)

So there you have it. Is it fully optimised? No, not at all. But is it about the hardest list I can make with my collection? Probably. I stretched to getting an extra box of Skitarii to allow for the double battalion (baddalion), but I didn't fancy scouring ebay for Daedalosus or a Manipulus to buff the Kataphrons or getting a Helverin or even a Castellan. (We all know the Valiant is the right Dominus!) I'm fairly happy that with two big knights and the Destroyer blob I've got the punch to at least make a game of it against most opponents. I can't imagine I'll catch anyone off guard with them, but thanks to the ITC style ruin rules they use at the GT these days, the Destroyers should be able to hide to allow them to spring out and get one good volley off, boosted by the Ryza and the Servitor Maniple stratagems, they will be +1 to hit, wound and damage, which should hurt! I'm also hoping with my decent supply of CP I can get some good use out of the Knight stratagems, a knight getting back up from the dead can definitely change a game.

Anyway, whatever happens, it should be a bit of a laugh. I've already ticked off a good chunk of my essential tournament preparation list, ahead of schedule. Warhammer World usually put on a good event, with a good standard of armies and players, and I haven't been to one in ages, so again, I'm excited!

Grim Dice 40k tournament

Hello!

As I have previously mentioned, I had a 40k tournament to go to last week at the Grim Dice store in Grimsby. It was 1250 points, playing three games of a modified ITC style format on 4x4 boards. I took the Fractured Truth of the Alpha Legion, my list slightly changed from the warm up game against John, featuring some newly modified minis. I ran a Battalion and a Spearhead, and everything had the mark of Slaanesh for convenience.

HQ:
Chaos Lord, warlord: I am Alpharius, relic: Blade of the Hydra
Chaos Sorcerer, Prescience, Delightful Agonies
Dark Apostle, Benediction of Darkness, bonus relic: the Hydra's Wail, +2 Dark Disciples

Troops:
12 Cultists
12 Cultists
10 Chaos Marines, 2 plasma guns, combi-plasma for the champion

Elites:
Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought, 2 kheres assault cannons

Heavy Support:
3 Obliterators
Predator, autocannon, lascannons
Predator, all lascannons

Not a super cheese list by any stretch, but it definitely had some shooting punch. Obviously the plan was the buff up the Oblits, Endless Cacophony them, and if required use the Concealment stratagem from Faith and Fury. I hoped that in the off chance that they were taken out early, the Predators and Contemptor would give me enough firepower to deal with whatever did it!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect in terms of opponents or 'meta', having only been in the store once, but there was a good turnout - 19 players filled the room with various armies, I think only one of which was 'proper cheese' (more on this later).

First game was against Phil and his Imperial Knights. He ran them as Hawkshroud, with a Castellan, Gallant and a Warglaive.

I got a bit of luck to go first, and the Obliterators did their thing, removing the Armiger for first strike. The rest of my army was hiding from the big scary Castellan, so they piled firepower into the Gallant, reducing it significantly down to around 8 wounds.

Just in case, I also moved some disposable cultists in front of the Oblits and Concealed them. As it turned out, the Castellan pointed at my Preds instead.

The Gallant did Gallant things, charging up the middle and kicking a bunch of Chaos marines, while the volcano lance from the Dominus class knight melted the quad-las Predator. A decent punch back, but the Gallant was now injured and facing most of my army at close range...

Somewhat predictably, the Knight was destroyed (though it eventually fell to the Lord's relic chainsword to do it!). Phil was annoyed that my Hydra's Wail relic had cost him the command points he wanted to use to make it explode on a 4+, but then he went and rolled a 6 anyway! The last of the marines were killed, the Pred and the Dread took damage, and the Lord died! The Sorcerer then revealed himself to be the real warlord, and promptly took 4 mortal wounds from the explosion. I rolled for his warlord trait, and got one that granted him an extra wound, keeping him alive!

With the Castellan still standing there was still a game on, but thanks to the Alpha Legion trait and assorted prayers and psychic powers, the Obliterators survived it's fury, and over then next couple of turns finished it off. A solid win for the Alpha Legion.

Giant explosions are always fun, so this was a great start to the day, both in terms of the fun game and the result. Next up though was a familiar foe...

The Fractured Truth formed up in an abandoned industrial sector against the Emperor's Children, led by John! Yes, a rematch from our practice match, which did not go very well for me! John was running the same list as before (Lord, Sorcerer, Apostle, 2x10 Cultists, 18 Noise Marines, 2 Sonic Dreadnoughts, Lascannon Contemptor, Dreadclaw), but this time I was prepared. I'd learned my lesson, and deployed the Obliterators on the board, using Forward Operatives to potentially get them into a good position to blast away on turn one. Then John went and seized the initiative! The Noise Marines repositioned with a stratagem, threading the needle between terrain pieces and opened up on the Oblits. When the dust settled, all three were still standing...

The return fire was brutal. Between the fleshmetal guns and moral, 18 were reduced down to about 5. The las Predator also helped out by destroying a Sonic dreadnought on the flank. However, he brother in the Dreadclaw drop pod was about to come for revenge...

The new Sonic Dreadnought made a long bomb charge out of deep strike around some ruins into the Obliterators, while the pod itself charged my Contemptor and a Predator to shut them down. (Though the Contemptor managed to walk off and still shoot thanks to a new F&F stratagem.) The Oblits were punched to death, and due to the placement and the secondary objectives at play I had to get rid of the pod ASAP!

Up step a trio of potential Alphariuses, lobbing deadly accurate krak grenades, then finishing it off in melee. Elsewhere shooting was exchanged, and the cultists were getting into a big scrap on the central objective.

With all the Dreadclaw related issues, I didn't manage to deal with the dread hiding around the corner, who proceeded to run around the Contemptor and punch out my Sorcerer (though he did take a krak grenade to the sarcophagus for his troubles.) It was eventually dealt with, but was a hell of a distraction!

At the business end of the battle, the Noise Marines had removed the last of my cultists to claim the central objective, while my Contemptor finished off John's cultists. I'd racked up quite a lead, but that lascannon Contemptor was starting to pull it's weight, acounting for both my Predators.

The characters all met for a big punch up in the middle, which, sadly, my Lord lost (I think he ate a smite) before the Dark Apostle got hammered by the Emperor's Children jump Lord. At this point, I only had a squad of marines on my objective, but time was called at the start of my turn 5. The Alpha Legion hung on for another win!

We did a bit of talking through, and it's entirely possible that John might have tabled me in turn 6, which would have given him enough points for at least a draw. However if I'd hung on with one marine on the objective I'd have enough for an unassailable lead. Who knows what would have happened, but obviously the Fractured Truth had got what they came for, and fell back just in the nick of time!

So with all that, turns out I was on the top table for the last game, which was nice. However, this is where things get a bit nasty, as my opponent, Kerryn, brought some pretty heavy cheese! Crimson Fists featuring Pedro and a smattering of characters, 15 tactical marines and 12 Centurions, split into 6 Assault and 6 Devastators with heavy bolters. All 12 carrying the hurricane 'nipple' bolters. This list was like walking into a wall of bolt shells, with enough buffs going around that they could fell Knights!

I braced for impact, and deployed with the hope of going first...

I did not. The Centurions marched up, deleted both units of Cultists, the Contemptor and a Predator. Owwie!

Return fire from the Obliterators was, in spite of some relatively poor roles, actually quite effective. I think they killed 6 Centurions (though one got back up thanks to an Apothecary). Respectable, though not nearly enough, and they were cut down by the return fire.

I did eventually make it to turn three, though it was a bit pathetic, after the last Predator failed to kill any Centurions I was down to just the Dark Apostle, who promptly yelled 'yolo!' and charged into a wall of fire from the assault Centurions. An emphatic loss for the Alpha Legion.

To set the record straight, Kerryn was a perfectly courteous and fun opponent, and I'm not salty about it. He brought a hard list to a tournament and justifiably won. We had a bit of a chat after (we had plenty of time!) about what I could have done (other than wait for Centurions to get hit by the nerf bat). He suggested staying back out of their range, as their 4 inch movement is their only real weakness. I'm not sure that would have achieved much on a 4x4 board with 4 objectives to capture, other than delaying the inevitable, but it definitely makes sense as a general principle. In hindsight it might have been the right move here - just to try and claw as many points from the game. I think, with my deployment, had I got first turn I could have made a game of it, but I suspect it still would have ended in the Fist's favour. They say you learn more from a loss than a win, and I definitely learned a lot from this game.

So in the end, I came away with 2 wins and a loss (to the overall winner), so I can't really complain about that! John managed to win his last game, and annoyingly pipped me, finishing in 4th to my 5th place. More importantly of course, I had fun! It's always good to walk away from an event thinking 'I love 40k' rather than 'how much can I get for my minis on ebay?' I'd definitely go back for more.