This week, my World Eaters faced off against Simon's Custodes army in our Didcot Wargames Club league battle.
The World Eaters were currently undefeated, so was hoping to get another win against the golden boys.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Lord Invocatus
Master of Execution (Berserker Glaive)
10 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
Rhino
10 Jackals
10 Jackals
2 Spawn
3 Eightbound
3 Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Exalted Eightbound
A slightly different mix of units, as I had added another unit of Eightbound to the army.
Captain
Captain
5 Custodian Guard
3 Custodian Guard
3 Custodian Wardens
3 Custodian Wardens
2 Terminators
Caladius Grav Tank
Caladius Grav Tank
Inquisitor
Culexus Assassin
I'm not entirely certain of the make up of the units. There were three blobs of Custodes with characters, a couple of tanks and a couple of allied units.
We were playing Supply Drop with corner deployment and Supply Lines special rule.
I deployed as shown below.
I decided to be more aggressive with Angron, but kept him hidden from the tanks. I put the Rhino and Eightbound behind the bottom ruins, with the Lord Invocatus, 6-man Exalted and Jackals ready to scout forward. The Jackals held my home objective, with the Spawn and 5-man Berzerkers to go after the top objective.
Simon deployed his two Grav Tanks at the back of the deployment zone, with the two Terminators at the edge of his zone. The other units were spread out on the flanks, with the Assassin joining the unit on his right.
Simon won the roll for first turn. I used my Scout moves to pull back and get behind the cover of the bottom ruins. We rolled for the objectives, with the middle one being the Alpha and top objective being the Omega (from my point of view).
TURN 1
Simon drew Area Denial and Extend battle lines, a strong draw for turn 1. The Terminators advanced onto the middle objective, while the Custodes and tank on the right moved up towards the other objective. The squad on the left advanced towards Angron.
Some shooting put a couple of wounds on Angron, after failing a 2+ armour save!
In the charge phase, one unit of Custodes with the Captain charged Angron. Sadly, I didn't have the CP for the -1 damage strat. After some poor saving throws, Angron was slain by the Custodes and they consolidated into the Eightbound, losing one of their number for the trouble. I failed the fight on death roll with Angron too. A savage start! Angron was dead and he scored 10 pts on his secondaries.
In my turn, I drew Engage on all Fronts and Overwhelming Force, not a great start. I need to deal with the Custodes in my lines. I moved the MOE, Berzerkers and 6 Exalted up to deal with them.
The Spawn moved up to the top objective, while the Rhino advanced to get Engage. The Jackals advanced onto the centre to deny the primary points.
I charged the Custodes with the Berzerkers and Exalted, killing the squad with the combined attacks. I scored 3 pts on Engage and discarded Overwhelming.
TURN 2
Simon drew Overwhelming Force and Bring it Down, another good draw. He also got 5 pts on the primary.
The Custodes on the bottom objective moved to deal with the Rhino, while the Assassin took their place on the objective. The two Grav Tanks moved to get line of sight on my force.
Two of the Custodes units moved to deal with my big combat blob.
The Terminators fired on the Jackals, killing all but 3. The firepower from the rest of the army managed to kill all but one of the Exalted Eightbound.
In the charge phase, one of the Custodes units charged the Berzerkers and last of the Exalted. The Terminators charged the Jackals, while another squad charged the Rhino.
The Master of Execution and the Berzerkers struck at the charging Custodes (thanks to Fights First) and was able to slay them outright! A big boost for me.
The Jackals and Rhino were easily slain by the rest of the forces.
At the end of his turn, Simon scored 9 on the secondary points, giving him a good lead.
In my turn, I drew Area Denial and Storm Hostile and got 5 points on the primary. I decided to go after the middle objective to score both the points. Despite being behind in points, I was in a good position. The master of Execution was doing great at picking up the Custodes units, and I had the Omega objective well guarded.
I moved the Berzerkers onto the top Omega objective to support the Spawn, while the rest of my forces moved towards the centre of the table. Simon used his reactive move to bring a unit of Custodes back and keep them safe from my charges. I put the bulk of my army into the Terminators in the centre, easily killing them and scoring 10 points on the secondary.
I also used the stratagem to roll a blessing and got Angron back!
VICTORY POINTS:
Custodes- 24
World Eaters- 18
TURN 3
Simon got another 5 on the secondary and drew a couple of duff secondary cards.
He moved the Custodes and Assassin at the bottom of the field up towards the centre, and brought the other units to target my forces. I rapid ingressed with Angron, putting him near the centre to benefit from the re-rolls on the charge.
Simon used the Precision shooting attacks from the Assassin to kill the Master of Execution, greatly diminishing the Berzerker squad, a nice play! The rest of the firepower took the Berzerkers down to only 2 in the unit.
In the charge phase, the Custodes on the bottom charged both Eightbound units in the middle objective. One squad was slain, while the other was brought down to 1 model. The fight back from fight on death managed to kill one of the Custodes.
Simon scored no secondary cards, but managed to take the central objective.
In my turn, I drew Behind Enemy Lines and Secure No Man's Land. I moved Angron to deal with the central Custodes, while advancing the last of the Exalted into the Custodes' deployment zone. Lord Invocatus moved to target the Assassin.
The 3-man Exalted deep struck onto the bottom objective. They were in line of sight of the two tanks, but if they died I could use the stratagem to sticky the objective they were on. Simon didn't really have anything that could get to the objective, so would be almost guaranteed the 8 points on the primary in turn 4.
I threw a grenade, taking 3 wounds from the Assassin. I then charged the Assassin with Lord Invocatus, who was able to kill him off.
Angron charged the Custodes in the middle, able to kill all but the character as he used the 4+ FNP that round to reduce the damage. The attacks back managed to take 8 wounds from Angron.
I scored my two secondary cards.
VICTORY POINTS:
Custodes- 29
World Eaters- 31
I had taken the lead and taken care of a number of the Custodes units in the progress.
TURN 4
Simon fell back with the Captain in combat with Angron, using the strat to fall back and charge. The Grav Tanks moved up to target my forces.
One fired at Angron, killing him. The other fired at the Exalted on the objective, but only killed one. The Captain failed his charge on the Exalted, while the last Custodes squad charged and killed the other Exalted.
In my turn, I moved Lord Invocatus and the lone Eightbound up on the Captain, while I hid the other Exalted on the objective behing the ruin. I scored 16 pts on the primary, putting me firmly in the lead. The Berzerkers advanced onto the Custodes' home objective.
I used grenades to do 3 wounds on the Captain, charging and finishing him with the Lord Invocatus.
VICTORY POINTS:
Custodes- 39
World Eaters- 57
TURN 5
In his final turn, Simon drew defend stronghold and behind enemy lines. The Custodes squad moved to kill the Berzerkers on his objective, while the tanks killed Lord Invocatus and the Eightbound.
In my turn, I scored another 8 on the secondaries without having to move and scored 15 on the primary for holding the omega objective.
The final score was
VICTORY POINTS:
Custodes- 52
World Eaters- 90
A win for the World Eaters.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Sorry for the lack of photos, I need to get back into practice of taking them during my games.
The new Custodes codex has lost a lot of its power from the previous editions. This would have been an incredibly hard match up for me if they were still using the index.
I was pretty worried after Simon's first turn. I was not expecting him to go so aggressive, and lost Angron as a result.
I decided to deploy Angron further forward than usual. The reason for this is that I normally deploy him behind the big ruins, and it can take several turns for him to get into combat, which seems like a bit of a waste. At least if he dies earlier, he has a better chance of coming back later, which he did in this game.
After that though, I was able to pick up the unit with the massed attacks of my main combat units in the game.
The MVP in this game was definitely the Master of Execution and Berzerker squad. His fights first was key in picking up a lot of the Custodes units in this game, and really helped me out in turn 2, killing the incoming Custodes before they got a chance to strike.
I think Simon shouldn't have been so aggressive in turn 2. He could have afforded to stay back and shoot out the MoE and Berzerkers, as he did in the later turns. With another unit, I would have had trouble dealing with the rest of the army with that squad gone.
Another issue is not focussing on the Omega objective, not putting any units near it really. This mission really swings on who controls the Omega objective, as it is worth a big points swing towards the end. The first few times I played this mission, I made the mistake of only going after the objective near the end. It helps to have a plan to focus on it early on, as the 23 pts you get for it in the last 2 turns is a big bonus. I was able to put the Berzerkers and Spawn on it and they were never threatened throughout the game.
Overall, a good game for the World Eaters. I've got one more league game to play against Necrons in a few weeks, so will need to see how that goes!