UKTC Oxford Super Major- Tournament overview Day 2

I recently attended the Oxford Super Major with my World Eaters army. My first day saw the World Eaters going 2-1, taken out by Necrons in the third game. 

My fourth game would see me going into the Aeldari, commanded by Seth. 

Seth's army consisted the Avatar, Fuegan, a Farseer, Skyleaper character, two units of Rangers, two units of Shadow Spectres, a unit of Warp Spiders, a unit of Swooping Hawks, Fire Dragons, two D Cannons, a Falcon and two Fire Prisms. 

A lot of good firepower and some useful movement tricks with the units and stratagems. 

The mission was Scorched Earth with Crucible of Battle and an extra objective. I deployed using my usual set up. Angron went behind the large ruins on the bottom, with a unit of Jackals and the Eightbound. The other unit of Jackals and exalted set up to scout move up, with the Rhino in the middle ruins and a unit of Spawn and Berzerkers to go after the top objectives. 

Seth deployed his Rangers to cut down my Scout moves, with the rest of his army hiding out across the deployment zone. 

I got the first turn and drew Area Denial. I pushed up the Jackals, while the Exalted squad hid in the big ruins. The Berzerkers and Spawn pushed up on the top objective, while the Rhino moved up to screen out the enemy deep strikers. The Jackals charged and killed the Rangers, consolidating back towards the objectives. 

The Warp Spiders moved out to screen the big objective, while the rest of the army moved to target the Jackals in the centre. The firepower killed the Jackals, while the Shadow Spectres moved to target the middle objectives. 

In my second turn, I got advance and charge and moved to get the bottom objective with the Exalted Eightbound and Eightbound. They charged in and killed the Rangers and Shadow Spectres, consolidating into the Swooping Hawks and a Falcon. 

In reply, the Hawks passed their test to fall back, while the Falcon stayed in combat. The Aeldari moved up to target the World Eaters in their lines, while I rapid ingressed the Exalted into the middle ruins to go after the objectives. 

The firepower from the Aeldari was able to kill all the Exalted, leaving the Lord Invocatus alone. The Swooping Hawks used Fire and Fade to move onto the objective (even though they fell back, they are allowed to do this!). The Fire Dragons charged and killed the Eightbound, while the Avatar failed a charge on the Lord Invocatus.

In my third turn, I decided to push up the left flank, since the main Aeldari units were committed on the right flank. The Berzerkers and MOE pushed up on the left, supported by the Spawn and 3-man Exalted Eightbound unit. The Berzerkers moved to target the Shadow Spectres on the objective, while Angron moved up to the top objective, while the Rhino started to Raze it for the mission points. 

In the charge phase, the Lord Invocatus charged and killed the Swooping Hawks. The 5-man Berzerkers killed the Shadow Spectres. The forces on the left flank were able to kill the Warp Spiders and a D-cannon, consolidating into cover of the objective. 

A great turn for the World Eaters, as I had hid hard and taken a flank, with much of the army safe behind the screen of the terrain. 

In his turn, Seth moved to try and target the World Eaters. The firepower took out a few Berzerkers and eliminated the Exalted Eightbound. The Berzerkers in the middle were whittled down to one model. The other firepower failed to kill the Lord Invocatus. 

In the charge phase, the Avatar charged and killed Lord Invocatus, while the Skyleaper character killed the lone Berzerker in the middle. 

In my turn, I continued to push, moving up on the Aelari forces. The Berzerkers and MOE charged and killed the other D Cannon and Farseer. Angron moved across the battlefield and took out one of the Fire Prisms. The other 5-man Berzerker squad killed the Skyleaper character, but he came back after a roll. 

In the final turns, the Avatar charged Angron, but failed to kill him in combat. The Aeldari fired at the Berzerkers, but failed to kill them, allowing them to Blood Surge onto a Fire Prism holding the objective and kill it. 

At the end of the game, the World Eaters won, 94-68. Another victory for the Chaos Forces. 

A great game against Seth, very tactical and with a lot of interesting plays. I might have been more aggressive with the Avatar, and forced my units to tackle him in the middle of the board. This would have brought more of my army into range of the D Cannons, who didn't get to do much for the first couple of turns due to their lower range. 

He also could have been more agressive with his fast-moving units to pin me into my deployment zone, or expose my forces in the open to the firepower of his army. 

Overall, I liked how my plan worked. Waiting to see where he committed his forces allowed me to overwhelm the other flank. Blood Surge on the Berzerkers was great again, as Seth didn't want to shoot at them with too much and allow me to gain distance on his forces or trap them in combat. 

My last game would see my army take on Stephen's Sisters of Battle. The army consisted of a couple of units of Arcoflaggelants, two units of Repentia, some assassins, crusaders and battle sisters. Morgan Vahl and the battlesuits were accompanied by a couple of Rhinos, Immolators and two of the Battle Tanks, as well as a priest and the Triumph. 

A tough list to go up against, with a lot of firepower, combat units and some great stratagems. They have a 2CP automatic fight on death strat and a 1CP strat to select a unit in combat and my units can only target that unit, really tough with a lot of weaker chaff in the army. 

The Mission was Take and Hold with an extra objective and Search and Destroy deployment. 

We deployed as shown below, with a lot of screening on Stephen's part. 

I got the first turn and decided to go cautiously, which was my first big mistake! I brought the Scouting Jakhals up and overwatch killed a few. I advanced them to move block much of his army, but didn't charge the Sister squad screening. Angron and the Eightbound moved up to the side ruins to go after the enemy vehicles in the next turn. 

In his turn Stephen moved up his units. The Jackals were slain by the enemy firepower. Angron was then targeted and taken down to 5 wounds by the firepower of many units. This was a mistake on my part, as I had him exposed to too many units. I probably should have moved him round to the left to take on some of the other threats and keep them out of range. 

On the left, the Immolator moved up on the objective. The Repentia charged and killed the spawn, while the Priest moved up on the bottom objective. 

In my next turn, I drew Assassinate, so sent Angron to kill the Priest on the objective. The Berzerkers moved up on the Repentia and killed them. I scored some more points on my secondaries and took a few more objectives. 

In his turn, Stephen managed to kill Angron and the Eightbound, along with the Berzerkers. I was quickly running out of resources. 

The game was pretty much over at this point. I charged the MOE and Berzerkers into the Immolator, hoping to destroy it and be in a good position to move up, but ended up stuck in combat for 3 rounds, after failing to roll well enough to kill it. 

The other highpoint of the game was Angron coming back in turn 4. I drew Storm Hostile Objective and Capture enemy outpost, and Angron made a 9" charge onto the Triumph on his home objective. Stephen used the stratagems well during the game to brunt my attacks into chaff units and fight back if I went after tougher combat units. 

The game ended 65-99 for the Sisters. 

I wasn't that experienced into Sisters and it showed in this game. I think I should have been much more aggressive in the first turn. I got advance and charge on my blessings, and had the Search and Destroy deployment. I should have just put the Exalted, Eightbound, Angron, Jakhals and Berzerkers in to his lines on turn 1. 

Most likely, I could have taken out Morgan Vahl, her unit, the Sisters and maybe a tank or two. This would have meant they would need to deal with my forces and I'm not sure he would have had the firepower to take out most of my units, allowing me to push onto the objectives to stop him from scoring. He also wouldn't have had the CP to use the fight on death stratagem in turn 1. 

As it was, I kind of wasted my combat ability, allowing Angron to be neutered without really doing anything. The MOE was also wasted, as he spent a lot of the game in combat with a vehicle, failing to kill it after Stephen made a lot of 5+ saves and I wasn't rolling well for the devastating wounds. 

Overall, I went 3-2 at the tournament. It was a lot of fun and there were some very tough match ups. I don't think any of my games were particularly easy, and they were all a lot of tactical fun. World Eaters are a tough army. They can either devastate the opponent or can struggle to get into combat. They are a lot of fun to play in events, and I look forward to trying them out a few more times in coming tournaments.