40k is a game and as any game it has winners and losers. The epitome of this is a Tournament where players come and fight each other until there is only one. Tournaments are where we can see the cheesiest lists on the table and the abusers reveal their true colours.
Last month I went on a team tournament with my friends. Our team had:- Necron wraith-spam
- CSM obliterators spam with 2 dragons and Nurgle bikes
- BA with razor spam and 3 Stormraven
- TAU with 2 riptide and Broadside-spam
- And my Steel Rain with some alterations
My list:
++ Wolf Guard James++ ++Primary Detachment: Space Wolves++
HQ1: Logan Grimnar
HQ2: Rune Priest (Chooser of the Slain)
HQ2: Rune Priest
Troop 1: 10 Grey Hunters
2xPlasma gun, Drop Pod
Troop 2: 10 Grey Hunters
2xPlasma gun,DropPod
Troop 3: 8 Wolf Guards 8xCombi-Plasma
1xTerminator Armor, Power Axe
Drop Pod
Troop 4: 8 Wolf Guards 8xCombi-Plasma,
1xTerminator Armor, Power Axe
Drop Pod
Troop 5: 5 Wolf Guards 5xCombi-Melta
1x Terminator Armor, Power Axe
Drop Pod
Troop 6: 5 Wolf Guards 4xCombi-Flame
1xTerminator Armor, Power Axe, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod
Heavy Support 1: 6 Long Fangs 5xMulti-Melta ,Drop Pod
Every team in the Tournament had 1 Tau, 1 Eldar and after that you mostly saw Necron and Space Marines. There were 8 teams. In the first round you played against a random team and then by rank. Every turn only four players can play. In the first turn, we draw against the winners of the Tournament.
GAME 1
I was drawn against, one of the two weaknesses that my list has, Flyers. My enemy played a Necron Flyer-spam. My opponent was somewhat of an abuser. He played the “Drop pod door” card. Throughout the game he tried to abuse LOS and the Storm Bolter Shots of the Pod. But that wasn’t enough to win the Sons of Russ.
List:
HQ:
1 Overlord Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs, Sempiternal Weave
1 Overlord Sempiternal WeaveRoyal Court:
4 Harbinger of Despair (Harbinger of Despair)
4 Harbinger of the Storm
Elite:
2x5Deathmarks
2 Night Scythe
Troops:
4x5 Warriors
4 Night Scythe
Heavy Support:
3 Annihilation Barge
Aegis Defence Lines
Game type: Big Guns Never Tire (5 Obj)
Terrain: Two small ruins in each corner, 2 forests in the other two corners and a hill in the middle.
Roll of: My win, I chose to play second.
Psychic Powers: RP1: LL, JOTW RP2: LL, MH
Objectives: I placed two inside his deployment; he placed another two inside my deployment and one on the middle.
Deployment: He placed his Aegis 4" from the table edge and divided it in 3 parts. He placed his barges in the corner part of his deployment, behind the Aegis. He chose to deploy 2 5man Necron Squads; one behind another part of the aegis and the second in a forest that had one of the objectives.
Seize: I didn’t want to.
Turn1
In his first turn he just junks his Barges. The time had come, for the Famous Space Wolves Drop Pod Assault. I picked for my first four pods
1.A 10 man Grey Hunter squad to shoot the warriors behind the Aegis
2.The flamer pod to wipe out the warriors in the forest
3.The melta pod to blow up a Barge
4.And Logan, the two Rune Priest and the MultiMeltas for the other two Barges.
I almost didn’t scatter at all. In the shooting phase the Flamers didn’t do as expected and one warrior survived, which allowrd him to revive 2. The Grey Hunter shot, but he chose to Go to Ground for a 2+ cover, so I just managed to kill one. The 5 Wolf Guard with meltas shot at the nearest barge doing only 2 hull points and immobilize. Lastly the Logan squad split fire the Multi-meltas on the second Barge, that exploded (First Blood) and the Rune Priests on the third with LL (as he didn’t let me shoot the lone Warrior, cause he claimed that my drop pods blocked LOS) causing a glancing hit. Not the best shoot phase but it could have been worse.
Turn2
He rolled for his reserve, and didn’t get only his 2 Deathmarks in the Night Scythe.
He brought his flyers in an angle that he could shoot me, but he couldn’t do in the next turn. He readjusted his Warriors and the Barges. In the Shooting Phase, he killed 4-5 marines but he also arced – with one of his Barges – and wrecked his own Barge that had only one HP.During my turn, the last Grey Hunter and one Combi- plasma squad arrived. Everything went as planned, the Wolf Guards and Grey Hunters killed all the Warriors by shooting and assault. Then they moved behind the Aegis, except for the Flamer squad that stayed in the forest guarding the Objective. Logan’s squad shot, assaulted and blew up the two reaming Barges.
Turn3
His Deathmarks, with two Crypteks and an Overlord in each squad, came to play. He deployed one near Logan’s squad and the other one near the Combi-plasma squad. In his shooting phase he wiped out Logan’s squad (Kill the Warlord), since Logan and his squad had assaulted the barges and all of them were close to each other (PERHAPS MY BIGGES MISTAKE). The other Deathmark unit managed to kill 4 out of the 8 Combi-plasma WG.In my turn, the last pod arrived and I deployed them near one of the Deathmark units. All my squads, except the Flamer, moved to the other Deathmarks. In the shooting phase I managed to wipe out with my Combi-plasmas one Deathmark unit, except the Overlord that was left only with one wound, everyone else shot at the other unit killing one Cryptek and two Deathmarks.
Turn4
He deployed two Warrior squads with two Cryptek in the Objectives inside my deployment. Every Flyer that couldn’t be positioned to shoot was taken out of the table. He moved the two Deathmark units in the small ruin that was near. In his shooting he targeted the Flamer squad but only killed one marine.
In my turn I moved to the ruin, shot him and took out one Deathmark. In the assault his template killed the only squad that was in range.
Turn5
He brought all Flyers to game and tried to kill my flamer squad and everyone else, except for the Terminator.
It was my turn to shoot pistols and then assault. I moved one squad in another Obj and with everyone else assaulted, but the dice God wasn’t with me, so I lost the C&C but didn’t lose the LD test.
Roll of: 1 - the game ends, it’s time to count.
Results: Objectives were 6-6, I had First blood and Linebreaker. He had also Linebreaker and Kill the Warlord so 8-8. And 3 points for the Barges against 1 of the Long Fang. The Sons of Russ Won 11-9 against an enemy that in all odds they couldn’t.Tactics: My plan in the game was to wipe out the enemy in the ground, and try to ignore and survive the Flyers. In the first turn I tried to deploy as close as I could to his table edge and his aegis. My plan was to use it for cover, so that the flyers that would come, on the upcoming turns, didn’t have LOS due to the angle they would fly in. I (tried to) used the 2" between models in a unit to minimize kills from the templates.
Sadly my team didn’t go as well as I did, as we lost 35-45.
I hope everyone liked my report and perhaps learnt something from my manoeuvres. Do provide your thoughts on where I could do better. Of course I would like to hear your opinion on this and all my previous posts, as well as suggestions for what you would like me to write about.
Next post “Tournament report part2”!
Until next time remember Prospero and…
VLKA FENRIKA