Creations of Bile win a RTT - photo tournament report.

Battle in the Warp stirs as Creations of Bile take battle against Night Lords.

With LGT on the horizon and the cricket season sadly at its end there was time for a local RTT. I've been experimenting with a few different Bile build and come up with the following:

Battalion + Patrol was the best way to fill out a combat roster and try and slightly reduce the appeal of no prisoners - it does make assassinate a much more juicy prospect for an opponent but that has its own issues for opponents to deal with. Otherwise the army was designed for one thing - mid field brawling using fight on death and its reasonable speed to try and force engagement as early as possible.

Game one - Custodes Shadowkeepers good stuff (No lists this time - no BCP to fall back on. )

My secondaries - Banners, Specimens of the Spider, The Long War

Custodes Secondaries - Assassinate, Stand Vigil, Banners.

Pregame thoughts - Pretty happy, although a heavy line of Dreads could certainly cause issues. Otherwise a lot of Bile's attack profiles which can feel a bit lacking into some defensives (Possessed into Blightlords for example) are at a really nice volume and profile into Custodes and Assassinate means they have to be aggressive which suits me. I lost the roll off for the first turn which helped my long war and hurt Custodes Stand Vigil which was a very nice start to the game.

Deployment - Chosen front and centre to try and take the middle with threats spread on the flanks, Cultists screen backfield from teleporting Telemon.

Custodes deployment, aggressive on the line.

Warp Talons and Possessed try and hide from the brunt of Custodes shooting.

Jet bikes arrive to ruin the hiding plan. Not sure if that's a pun given there location.

Custodes bikes in the middle prepare to make a long charge into unbuffed Chosen as there shooting fizzles.

A jetbike Captain made it into the chosen doing little damage who battered him in return. In my turn I move up and manage to take out a Jetbike with my baleflamers.

On the right flank Possessed take the fight to the Jetbikes whilst Warptalons prepare to take on the softer target of a Sisters unit to deny primary/get some Long War points with Custodes too entrenched on the middle to shift.

Back in the middle I charge into the Bikes destroying them - my Cultists/Spawn/Warp Talons forming a screen to protect my Charaters from any Custodies counter attack.

Possessed take out a Bike and Warp Talons take the objective.

Bikes dead and Custodes are locked in by my screens.

Custodes turn 2 as they start moving up to try and break out.

I'd screened out well initially, but when Possessed moved up to charge I left space for the Telemon to deep strike in closer than I'd have liked with my home objective the other side of the top building.

Custodes start to battle there way through my line - but suffer an huge setback when the 5 Warp Talons fighting on death high roll to take out Trajann!

Lord Discordant Heroically intervenes to take out 2 Custodian Guard as Custodes take heavy loss's clearing the middle.

End of Chaos turn 2 - Custodes in the middle have been Crushed with only a lone tagged Dreadnaught left as my characters tear through them.

Warp Talons take a Custodian charge and are left with 2 models, they fall back to contest the objective and cap Custodes score.

The Telemon had managed to make a 9 inch charge into the Possessed in destroy them. Rather than deal with it I sent a lone spawn to moveblock it.

Wierdly the Spawn didn't last long.

Custodes fly back to the middle to try and retake some ground.

Custodes manage to secure there backfield for now.

Custodes may be the Elite of the Imperium, but against a multitude of Chaos charaters they struggle to make a dent.

With the middle secure, I start to apply pressure to Custodes home objective and the Chosen manage the charge in to secure the objective.

Its a dark outlook for Custodes with the Telemon easily blocked by Cultists at the bottom and 2 guard facing annihilation if they move off there objective.

Telemon makes a last ditch play for some Assassinate points as Chaos take full control.

Result - Win for Chaos 96-36

Postgame thoughts - Custodes had their moments, but a relatively comfortable win with only the Telemon left at the end. Custodes were probably too aggressive off the line and it fell into my desired gameplan very nicely - I took a lead on primary in turn 3 and Custodes only managed 2 secondary points all game. With the Bikers gone early I was able to use my speed to force good engagements well, and fight on death helped equalise some bad ones to keep chip damage ticking over until a proper threat could come in.

Game 2 - Night Lords - (I know above I said didn't have lists, this one I could copy from LGT list submission)

My Secondaries - Specimens of the Spider, No Prisoners, Warp Ritual

Opponents Secondaries - Mental Interrogation, Long War, RND

Pregame thoughts:

For the second time in 3 tournament games I was against Michael Costello - given we had played in the week leading up to this and both tournaments we were pretty familiar with each other's lists even despite the tweaks we had both made. Regardless this was clearly a good match up for me, a nice 5 objective mission where I could try and bully the centre (Warp Ritual fed into this nicely) with the chosen and a combat Night Lords were going to struggle to Bile.

Creation of Bile win first turn and move up aggresively.

Spawn moves toward the left to screen out my backfield from terminators.

Creations of Bile have a excellent shooting phase killing a singular Possessed model.

Night Lord deployment - most of there units on the line with some Cultists/Havocs hiding back.

Terminators make a T1 teleport thanks to Night Lord tricks and manage to charge in whilst Legionaires slow up a Maulerfiend.

I tried to get sneaky and have Cultists infront of the objective to deny some movement/mission points but it wasn't particularly effective.

Possessed made a charge into Cultists, Spawn and Legionaires, but only managed to kill one of the Legionnaires

With the Night Lords Possessed committed I threw everything I could into them and managed to kill them to a warp mutated monster.

The Maulerfiends were a pain to deal with - they could tank most of my units well and threatened to take out my Charaters if they charged, with Night Lords low on CP though I could use both my Prince and Lord Discordant to take it out without fear of reprisal.

Battle lines clash hard in the middle.

I threw my Possessed at the Night Lords terminators that charged my Warp Talons. The Terminators low rolled on both attacks and saves for two turns in a a row and the unit was crippled far quicker than it should have been.

Chosen take out the Night Lord legionnaires to leave Bile in a very strong position.

Night Lord turn 2 - I gave up the objective to go after the Possessed so Night Lords Talons can retake it with ease.

Night Lord Raptors move towards the middle - they have a chance to take a 9 inch charge onto my Cultists holding my objective but decided against it

Bile retakes the flank whilst Chosen throw themself as Maulerfiend to try and stop it causing problems.

My Slaanesh prince helps finish off the terminators whilst my Lord Discordant tries and fails to take out the opposing Chaplain

Bile retakes the left flank as Night Lords dead pile fills the table.

Cultists hide away out of LoS picking up points.

Night Lords make there last major play throwing there remaining force into the middle.

Chosen only survive with a solitary model left, but Night Lords can't retake the objective and Bile HQ's swarm in to finish Night Lords off.

A few last second ploys from both players to pick up bonus VP as Bile finish up triumphant.

Final score - Creations of Bile win 93-58

Postgame thoughts: Good mission, good match up, better available secondaires - this is very favourable game for me and helped by some favourable dice rolls - Night lords put a lot of pressure on my north left flank making a teleport charge turn 1 with there terminator unit into my Warp Talon as they looked like they were going to be in a strong position, but a low roll from them into a high roll from me left my possessed squad in position to retake the objective and follow by another low roll on the terminators saves probably squashed out any realistic chance they had and meant I could focus on taking out any units that could cause a upset.

Game 3 - Mostly typical Bloody Rose Sisters with Outrider for 3/3 squads of Seraphim/Zepharim.

My Secondaries - Banners, The Long War, Creations of the Spider

Sisters Secondaries - Defend the Srhine, Sacred Ground, Leap of Faith

Pregame thoughts: Mission was Recover the Relics, which is probably the worst mission to play Sisters on - there's a sizable no-mans land and the 4 no-mans land objectives are right outside the deployment zone so they can score Sacred ground and Defend the Shrine very easily. On a hold 2/3 as well I need to disrupt both of these objectives and really dent the Sisters primary game to have a chance, albeit Bile this ultra aggressive gameplan into Sisters better than most.

Sisters deployment - Repentia up to the front to counter Chaos combat power.

Looks like a long way to Sisters objectives from here. Spawn and Cultists screen out backfield to stop deepstriking threats so I can go all in on aggressive push.

Sisters get turn one, but little of note happens other than scoring roughly two hundred secondary points for standing still. Chaos move up aggresively and Possessed charge into Repentia only for both to die thanks to Repentia fighing on death (what a cheap trick.)

Chaos Screen out deepstrike in midfield, touching the middle ruin to fire out a few bolter/Flamer shots to whittle down some Repentia.

Chosen get Warptimed up in a nice reminder of 8th edition CSM book to get a few more bolter shots in.

Sister move up to bodyblock Chosen and Melta shots start taking out Warp Talons and Possessed with great efficiency,

If in doubt - be more aggresive has been a great mantra for CSM armies. Warp Talons battle Celestene, just failing to take her out whilst Chosen use some charging tricks to take out the Seraphim blocking them and wrap and trap the Sister Repentia charater to stay safe from shooting next turn and threaten to stop defence the shrine points.

Yes, that is a very colourful shirt my opponent is wearing. Also - still screening out the mid/backfield this turn so Seraphim and Repentia have to come into Sisters deployment zone.

Sisters are ahead and taking an attritional toll on Chaos, but Chaos are applying pressure to Sisters primary.

Chaos backfield is safe and can start to move up next turn.

I stopped taking picture here sadly, and the game takes a massive decisive swing. 3 Zeraphim units charge the Chosen. After one unit activates, I pull models out of one of there range of another, interrupt via fights first and murder the two I'm engaged with. Sisters are suddenly without any way to push back Chaos advance as Chosen/Prince and Talons can pick up targets at there leisure.

Final score - Chaos wins 98-73.

Postgame thoughts - Odd game, it felt like I was behind all game and I suddenly won with one combat in round 3. The Sisters melta rolled appropriately hot throughout and when my Daemon Prince died on overwatch I thought that was game but this was a game were the threat overload was enough that the Sisters ran out of ways to counter the Chosen and they took full advantage. Despite losing plenty of units at the start, I did control the board and screened out my deployment and no-mans land throughout until the Zeraphin/Seraphim had to deep strike in by turn 3 and no Sister's unit ever made it to my side of the board throughout the game (and they still nearly got max points on secondaries!) Surprisingly fight on death didn't make a massive difference here - it actually helped Sisters more than Bile for a change (I killed roughly 5 Zepharim thanks to it, Repentia killed a Possessed squad) but the freedom it gave in me being aggressive was key and it obviously did affect how we both played so it's not a true reflection on its power.

Chaos take home the prizes!

The event wrapped up - I ended up being the only person undefeated and took home 1st place a nice servo-skull trophy and poster. I'll do a proper write up of the units after LGT next week when i'm running the same list but it feels good on paper - its reasonable fast, aggressive and wants to brawl in the middle and probably has about as good a secondary game with the two Princes to cast Warpcraft powers as I can think of for Chaos.