Blood and Glory 2017 was the first 40k tournament I ever went to. Back in the early days of 8th, when Brimstone Horrors and Malefic lords ruled the earth long before the rule of 3 was a thing, I managed to go 4-1 with a Alpha Legion/Tzeentch list (using possessed with -2 to hit thanks to legion rules and Changeling as the main gimmick, they still sucked.) A year later I managed my best tournament result to date going 5-0 with a Thousand Sons list with a Blood Letter bomb and ending up with most gaming points (but ended up second due to soft scores, a lack of display board costing me dearly.) This year I learnt my lesson by not bringing a display board so no-one can call me inconsistent. Missions were ITC championship.
My list:
So the plan was to expect Marines everywhere and try, and assume there bad matchups would go down. With that in mind I wanted to avoid infantry as much as possible, given that in my games against them as chaos with Plaugebears/erTzaangrors they just got deleted, and they were a lot tougher than anything I planned to bring. Beyond that as my first competitive event with Eldar the list started easy enough - bring some planes (even though I hate them as a concept and how they interact) - 2 Crimson Hunters with Starcannons and a Hemlock to start. Reapers weren't far off next, although they did face some competition from 3 prisms in how to fit them in the list - in the end I went with both meaning that despite the fact I'd been having success with a Ynnari Supreme command in club games with some Wraithseers I ultimately couldn't fit them in the list, similar story with Harlequin Skyweavers. To round out the list was three Dire Avengers squads a Warlock and two farseers - in an event with fixed powers/relics/warlord traits I wanted access to Doom/Guide and Executioner and the ability for two smites + Executioner seemed like a good way to threaten any smash captain that got close, or possibly to be used to untag a unit. Swooping hawks were a very late inclusion, Swooping Barrage (+1 on Mortal wound rolls for their grenade packs) seems like fun and a friend talked me into it, originally I wanted them as one unit but felt it could end up as a gimmick and using them as two separate squads allowed me to DS them in after objectives if the gimmick didn't work a wave serpent to protect the reapers turn 1 was the final pick. Aloitic was the obvious trait for the list, I didn't want to mix and I wanted to be as far away as possible anyway.
So lots of big guns with some maneuverability seemed like a good mix - I was worried about horde matchups but felt marines would take care of them from the meta and it would be hard for them to tag units if I screened with my tanks/planes.
Game 1 v Shauns Necrons.
List:
Pregame thoughts- Shaun is a good friend of mine - we used to play at the same club until around a year ago and we had last played in round two of Blood and Glory 2018 were I managed to outshoot his Tau list with my mostly combat/mind bullet Chaos list by repeatedly tagging everything with a Bloodletter bomb - they killed almost nothing the entire game, but stopped roughly 50% of his firepower from shooting. Shaun had informed me that his new Necron list was inspired by my list last year, I wasn't sure what he meant other than he had some NightScythe that were going to drop warriors in my face at some point. I was slightly worried by his Doom Scythes/Doomsday ark and his board control but was happy most of his shooting was anti-infantry, and his Tesla might struggle v Aloitic.
Not really sure how to deploy against his list I backlined my planes and fire prisms. I grouped up a few units I wasn't worried about getting hit by an Amalgamated Targeted Data burst from his Doom Scythes in the middle crater to try and give an inviting target and take shots off my Fire Prisms. Shaun won the role off the then revealed his trick. The Ctan infiltrated the two Night Scythes up and two squads of warriors piled out along with the third who also infiltrated up.
Well I wasn't expecting that - Shaun wanted to come and wrap my infantry with his warriors, all fearless thanks to his lord - but his Tau heritage betrayed him. The Warriors got rather shooty and killed most of their targets to warp - my left and right Avengers squads. He also concentrated his big guns on my Wave Serpent - just killing it along with a Reaper in the explosion, but hadn't put himself in a position to target the squad after it disembarked into a nearby ruin. Noticeably the right Avenger squad as a huge misplay - he charged them with ease but they were able to Fly away (my Farseer with the relic wings also heroically intervened so the other one couldn't be Wrapped) meaning he was only able to wrap the middle squad and failed to do much damage in mine or his turn to them. In response I was able to take out two of his Doom Scythes and his right Necron squad, even with the Fireprisms combing fire on his last one only managing a solitary wound between them. I've noticed Fire Prisms previously drastically fall off v fliers given their main strength is reliability and they can't reroll when there 'hits' miss.
Shauns next turn was a bust, he did a reasonable amount of damage but wasn't able to concentrate on it on anything and I was essentially unscathed - in particular my last Dire Avengers survived through my turn keeping his Necrons engaged with them busy and unable to go after my Reapers, even when his Ctan tried to mind bullet them off the table. From there things went bad quickly for Shaun, with unmatched Aerial superiority and my big guns still mostly intact I took out his remaining threats, leaving only his characters, his Night Switches and one warrior squad left. He managed to scrape through a few more turns clawing some points along the way but with his anti-tank gone and his Tesla ineffective against my planes the score went my way from here on.
Verdict - Shaun got his strategy spot on, but his tactics wrong. His target priority meant my big guns were always active and he ran out of threats to kill them quickly. Likewise he could have wrapped 2/3 units with his warriors but failed to do so repeatedly - and whilst held the middle he didn't hold enough objectives to get the bonus meaning even whilst he was ahead on objectives, me getting kill more every turn kept me in the game until I pushed him back. Not expecting his warriors mobility could have made the game tight, but I capitalized on his mis-plays and my superior firepower won out quickly to win 34-18
My MVP(s) - Farseers - Executioner/Smite was able to whittle down his Necron squads time after time and even mostly failing with doom, Guide was excellent. The Flying Farseer in particular's early heroic intervention saved me a lot of pain turn one.
Game 2 v Simons Imperial Fists
Another familiar opponent. I'd played Simon twice before, in fun but highly one sided games, sadly the wrong way.
List:
Both of us back lined our planes, I crammed as much as I could into wave Serpent to get the +1 to go first, which seemed critical in the match up. Otherwise I had the avengers squads counter his Warsuits - to try and move block them to I could shoot his fliers without fear of getting punched in the face repeatedly. I lose the first turn roll off, but managed to steal the initiative. Maybe I could get an early punch in and upset his army enough to take the counter attack.
Turn one started well, I moved up to block the Warsuits and one of the Farseers rolled 6 on a super smite to get things rolling. I was able to kill one Stormhawk with the reapers and I killed his Stormraven with Planes, sadly the Centurions inside survived. The smite damage from the Farseers allowed me to pick off one Warsuit and life was good.
Then Simon had his turn and my army died.
Not tabled, but it felt like it. The Centurions along killed two planes and Two avengers squads - seriously overkilling all of them, one stormhawk killed the reapers (through a lighting fast reflex) and another one killed my CHE. One fire prism was crippled and the Wave Serpent took a serious beating.
My turn 2 technically happened, with my retaliance entirely insufficient to reverse the devastation. The 28-15 final score in no way reflective of the sheer brutality done to the list.
Ouch! Hard to find take away from this one. With a mostly barren table I couldn't hide anything so I went for the threat overload approach - and everything just died! Evening if I had tried to hide back and castle up, his fliers had the reach to destroy anything they needed too. Possibly I could have zoned out the centurions better but I wanted the planes up close to get around Stealthy.
My MVP - The reapers shooting down a plane turn one was good? Didn't get there points back but they still did the best out of anything by default.
Game Three - Daniels Chaos Bash Brothers.
List:
Pregame thoughts : Morty and Magnus are always scary to face, even if there power has dropped off since there release. I wasn't too worried though, especially if I could get a round of shooting before the buffs could go off. The Tzaangors could be a pain, especially if they to the reapers but otherwise I felt confident.
This was a deploy first - go first mission and I won the roll of. I kept a unit of Hawks in reserve and left most of my infantry bar the Reapers on the frontline to eat smites and get in the way of the discordant with the Grav tanks/fliers behind.
In response Daniel clumped up most of his troops bar the Tzaangors (which he DS rather than choosing Dark Matter Crystal) and put Magnus back.
Daniel wasn't able to seize and turn one went better than expected. Magnus took a bunch of reapers to the face, and was finished off by the planes. The Discordant was slightly too far forward to be protected by Denial range and took the full front of Jinx/Doom, even if the infantry moved up to largely remove him as a threat turn one. Finally my remaining shooting into Morty got intercepted by his Terminator bodyguard who died to a man, something of a bonus. Morty moved up and shot his was to my Hemlock which promptly died in combat but it wasn't enough and he was left in the open with his Demon Prince who had taken out my Warlock.
Turn was disappointing compared to one but still strong - one units of Hawks dropped in killing a cultist squad to slow Daniel from getting ahead on objective and Morty died - sadly the Prince proved tougher than expected and was left on two. I screen my lines with the grav tanks/planes so when his Tzaangors came down they didn't have anywhere to tag, I spent my last CP to intercept them with the reapers and Daniel had to use his last to auto-pass there moral.
As we moved into turn three the score was close (Daniel was scoring hold more/Bonus with some good movement) but by the time round three was over the contest was done - the Tzaangors, even buffed by Ahriman couldn't take the onslaught and Daniel only had a few characters left at the end of turn 3, before getting tabled in four. Final result - 35-10
Takeaways - I had a strong match up in this one, especially if I went first. With most of Daniel's power in the Primarch taking one out early left him unable to retaliate against the airforce who in turn kept the reapers safe to reign death from afar. His Death guard prince threatened to make a mess of himself but wasn't able to reverse the tide. In the face of all the firepower.
Game 4 v Paul's Druhkari -
List:
Pregame - Up to table 9 and up against a Super mobile list. Historically Drukhari have always been a tough matchup for me, i'm pretty sure they are the faction i've always had the worst win rate against, albeit typically playing with a Chaos list. Looking at the list, there was a nice mix of anti-infantry from the venoms and a large amount of disintegrators and Blasters hidden inside Venoms. I decided I would try and ignore the Venoms where possible - I wasn't overly worried about being tagged by them and the effort to remove a solitary blaster seemed better placed elsewhere. Killing the planes and Ravagers seemed like the answer, if I could hit them before they hit me should hopefully leave all his poison shooting at tanks.
Confident I could outrange him, the planes and Fireprisms held back to try and avoid Blaster range while the infantry went up on the line to try and keep things back for a turn or two. The reapers hid in the Wave Serpent, with mostly damage 2 weapons on Paul's side it would take a monumental effort to crack before they got there shots off. Given his mobility I didn't think I could hide much on a relatively sparse terrain table so threat overload was the plan. In response Paul put his Ravagers in deep strike, bunching his venoms and raider together in the middle. The planes, like mine, deployed at the back.
I got turn one, the reapers disembarked and shot up one of Paul's Jetfighers and the planes combined to take out another. The fire prisms largely wiffed, they really don't like shooting things with negative to hit modifiers. In response my infantry largely got obliterated by massed Venom shooting the exception being the reapers who with Lightning fast reflexes and Aliottic bonus managed to only lose a couple, and the Orange Dire Avenger Exarch who survived a huge number of 4+ to stay alive on his last wound. If the Fire Prisms had been disappointing for me, Paul started up a trend of completing failing to do anything with his Blasters, I might be mis-remembering but throughout the entire game I think they only killed one reaper and did a solitary wound to a Hemlock. Turn two was a good one for me, managing to kill his other planes and a Venom with the squad inside - the Hawks had gone onto his back objective to apply pressure and the heroic last avenger managed to score the bonus for me.
Paul deepstriked his Ravagers behind some buildings, and despite Forewarning the Hemlock some good rolls on Paul's side meant they only did a solitary wound. Paul killed my remaining infantry bar a solitary reaper (and my last unit of Hawks which were still in DS) but couldn't manage to kill a fire prism with his combined Ravagers. My Hawks and Warlock started to pour fire into his left flank on my bonus objective but one lonely warrior survived to stop me holding. At this point I was edging ahead on secondaries - mostly due to the fact we had both gone for Big Game Hunter but his anti-tank was running low, whilst we traded Kill More/Hold more.
Despite a brave attempt from Drazhar to turn the tide, Paul was running out of units, and my planes and 2 fire prisms were untouched, able to pick off what they wanted. The score remained close until turn 6, but my firepower was able to pick off what was needed each turn to keep me ahead. Final score - 33-24
Postgame thoughts - close game, but one I was ahead on slightly throughout. First turn was big, as was the fact Paul deep struck his Ravagers - we both agreed we would have done the same before the game but not having the firepower on the table until I had shot twice but Paul at a disadvantage - if they had been on the table I would have either killed them or the planes, not both so the deep striking just brought me time to focus on other threats. This was the game were the CHE's really shined - they quickly brought aerial superiority and Paul didn't have a good answer to them after that as they picked off his Venoms slowly.
Game 5 v Dean
List:
Pregame thoughts - Going into the game there was a mix of worry and excitement for a number of reasons. It was the last round I was on table 5 - in fact I was the only non-marine player in the top 10 at this stage. Iron Hands were a tough matchup - but I felt confident if I went first the Fire Prisms and Reapers could soften up or kill two Repulsors with the fliers going into to finish them off, if I went second then it was very different, and Deans list was brutal if I couldn't.
Dean won the roll to go first, chucking his Repulsors in a big blob with the Levithan close and deployed his Warsuirts aggressively. I put my infantry up close to block the Warsuits for a turn, and hide everything else away from the Levithan so it couldn't shoot turn one. Sadly I couldn't get away from the repulsors big guns.
Turn one was as bad as I could have hoped for, not quite as bad as v Simons flier list, but close. Dean moved his Respulors blob up and destroyed two Fire Prisms and my screens got obliterated with the Warsuits worrying close..
My response wasn't bad, but it wasn't enough. The reapers nearly destroyed a Repulsor by themselves, even with Doom being denied via stratagem and the planes finished it off. With the warsuit too close for comfort I fire and faded the reapers behind a hill to hide from the Repulsors and finished off the Warsuit with everything else.
Deans turn two essentially ended the game there and then. Two planes were shot out of the sky, and even with -2 to hit the Thunderfire crippled the reapers, the Chapters masters full re-rolls invaluable. I was left with a plane, a fire prism, two farseers, 3 reapers and a wave serpent on the table and two hawk units in the sky.
Looking against the wall of Iron, unable to get close to destroying another repulsor or the Leviathan I shot up a scout unit to get my kill point, before passing my remaining turns as the game ended up 39-11.
MVP - The Swooping Hawk squad that killed the scouts and got me hold more for a turn? Hard to pick anything.
Post game - Another marine list, another brutal defeat. Possibly a very different game if I went first, but I didn't and hope to go first isn't much of a strategy. I struggled to pinpoint after the game what could have gone differently - after the game with Paul I didn't want to keep the fire prisms off the table in the same way he did with his Ravagers against me, feeling Dean would have destroyed the planes instead of the Prisms if I kept them off the table, just reversing the order of destruction and leaving me with less CP.
Final standing 3-2 wins and 26 overall on gaming, or as I prefer to think of it 3-0 plus two games v Marines. It was hard to find take away from the marines games, especially the first one v the flier list, which outplayed me in every facet. You may have noticed I didn't go into much detail on the missions in the above, simply because the points rarely felt relevant. The games I won was because I either tabled, or close to tabled my opponent and the games I lost were the same in reverse, it didn't feel like stealing an extra bonus here or there mattered alot, save perhaps in round 4 v Dark Eldar. Perhaps it was my list, but speaking to others it felt like overwhelming firepower and going first were just key tools in the meta which isn't ideal.
As for the list itself, the dual Farseers worked well together - the extra smite frequently came in handy and doom/guide/jinx is a proven combo. The Avengers did their job, but I can see now why Storm Guardians are taken - whilst Avengers are certainly better for points and have their moments, in a list like this the cheaper and more numerous Storm Guardians may have been better. Similarly the Hawks never really did a lot - they were most useful as a Deep Striking option and Rangers do that job if they just want to hold an objective. They never felt bad, but even with their gimmick they never felt powerful, if they get a points drop in CA2019 certainly a unit I'll come back to, or possibly with a meta change the -2 charge power might make them more useful.
Reapers + Wave Serpent were great as a combo, the Wave Serpent rarely did anything after turn one, but it got in the way at times and make a nuisance of itself. Often the last thing standing the idea of putting some bigger guns and making it more of a threat is certainly a thought going forwards. Reapers were great - if they weren't dealt with they caused my opponents loads of trouble. The extra shot from the Exarch was really useful and it maybe better to run 2 extra min squads in future. The Fliers were really good throughout - I wasn't sure about Starcannons over Bright Lances before, but the cannons were really good throughout and it was nice having the extra shots v infantry. The Hemlock shone in the aerial battle v Drukari but otherwise felt too expensive (or the CHE too good) in comparison to CHE in the other matchups.
Finally the Fire Prisms were a mixed bag. They either tended to annihilate or completely fluff whatever they shot at. Crucial at alpha striking big threats in games 3/4 and helpful at zoning out deep strikers from getting to my infantry, but absent in games I lost. Ended up as a bully unit if I went first in most games and something I may look to swap out as a result to give either some Harlequin or Drukari allies a chance.