So this will be a different type of write up to normal for two reasons - firstly the event was a smaller tournament - the initial plan was for a team tournament but couldn't quite get the numbers. Secondly on the back of this I hadn't planned to do a write up so didn't take many pictures but having being goaded in a mild and friendly fashion a couple of times but the TO to do one I relented - thus making this the first (and hopefully only) tournament write up done out of spite.
The event itself was a 8 person RTT to which I took Thousand Sons - I'd been looking to try these out a tournament pretty much since the book came out, but a combination of taking awhile to really learn how the book worked and not wanting to leave my Poxwalker comfort blank meant it's taken a while and a smaller event to finally bring them out.
My List:
Cult of Duplicity Detachment:
Exalted Sorcerer with Master Misinformer/Umbralific Crystal
Daemon Prince with Plate/Wings/Undying Form
3 Rubric Squads - one with Flamers
Contemptor Dreadnought with Volkite/Missile Launcher
2 Squad of 5 Chaos Spawn
2 Rhino's with extra infernal Combi Bolter
Cult of Time Patrol:
Ahriman
Rubric Squad
10 Man Scarab Occult Terminators with 2 Soulreaper/Hellfyre Missiles and Rites of Coalescence.
Game 1: Surround and Destroy
Cyrus had brought Imperial Fists - and despite Fists being rather low tier it packs some seriously scary firepower. The bulk of the list was 3 Redemptor Dreads accompanied by a Leviathan. 2 Eliminator squads and a Eradicator squad added further firepower backed up by a Chaplain/Chapter Master/Techmarine for ample buffs. 2 Incursor Squads, a land speeder and a max Intercessor squad (that ended up combat squading) rounded out the list.
For secondaries I went for Stranglehold, TTL (Ahriman, DP and Terminators) and Banners whilst Cyrus went for Engage, TTL (Two Redemptors and the Levithan) and Banners. With the mission being rather forgiving on secondaries plan pre-game was simple enough - take out a TTL target or two, avoid getting too close to the Dreadnaughts and use teleporting options to try and take out some primary at a key point - I ended up going second and felt happy that I could mostly stay back and try and nip ahead on secondary at the end as a result against a slowish Fist list.
Fists went first and moved upfield aggressively - there shooting didn't quite connect as hard as they might have liked but still took out one squad of Spawn, weakened the other and leave both Rhino's clinging to life
Dented, but with my big units mostly untouched I stayed back with my terminator unit and lined up shots with them and my Contemptor into one of the TTL Redemptors and managed to just take it out. Elsewhere my Flamer squad teleported across the table and torched the Land Speeder which was the only thing on Cyrus's objective to dent his primary and threaten to roll the flank from that position.
Fists kept pushing up as aggressively as they could, blowing away the rest of my chaff units. Things were going swimmingly until the eliminators managed to blow away 5 of the flamer squad with 3 shots to mostly end my threat to the flank.
Still I was in a strong position, having taken a early lead on primary and secondaries - eager to avoid a conflict with the main body of the Fist push I used the Crystal to teleport the Terminators to the other flank, party to keep them safe, partly to deal with the other TTL Redemptor which they obliterated. Still I wasn't having it all my own way - the remnants of my flamer squad tried to dislodge the intercessor squad with mind bullets/fire/charges but failed to do any damage of note and ended up in a multi-turn melee which they lost.
The Fists kept pushing on my left flank - but they found themselves mostly short of good targets and had to mostly settle for increased board position - despite a poor start they had managed to catch up on primary and had started regaining ground on secondaries after a slow start.
Aware I had some breathing room on the scoreboard and the comfort blanket of last turn scoring ,I was able to focus on taking a turn without worrying about the objectives too much - I took out the Eradicators with my Contemptor/Exalted Sorcerers mind bullet and right flank poured mortal wounds and intero bolters into the last Redemptor - Cyrus however saved his last CP to transhuman a Incursor squad to keep them alive against my Demon Prince and deny me more primary that I was expecting.
Fists kept pushing up, completely taking the entire left flank and now the game was about TTL targets - the Eliminators made a bold attempt on Ahriman's life but he managed to cling to life before he fell back away from them hiding behind a ruin at the back. My turn four essentially boiled down to just ensure the survival of the Terminators/Demon Prince in the middle and set up for a last turn push via Teleporting Rubric squad. The Fists didn't have enough firepower left to take out the Terminators or Prince, and the Rubric squad managed to sneak the objective off the Fists home objective to ensure a full 15 in the last turn. Final score 87-72 with the difference in score primarily down to TS having second turn and having been able to take out the Fists TTL targets.
Game 2 - Drukari
Sweep and Clear
Chris's Army:
Court of the Archon (2 Medusa, 4 Sslyth, 4 Ur-Ghul)
Archon
3 min Kabalite squads with Blaster
2 min Incubi Squads
2 Ravagers with 3 Dark Lances
3 Raiders with Dark Lance
Succubus
5 Wracks
5 Hellions
10 Reavers
Drazhar
3 min Wrack squads
2 min Mandrake squads
Always scary playing Drukari, looking at the list the units just kept coming! Given the mission we both went for Stranglehold and Direct assault, I went for Grind them Down as my last and Chris responded with Abhor the Witch. Both of us deployed on the line - Drukari with Raiders full of scary threats, TS with Spawn and some Rhinos guarding the flanks. I won a crucial roll off and went full damage mode.
A spawn squad charges up the middle and my left flank and unleashed the full mental onslaught of the TS into a Raider - which exploded with enough force to deal 3 mortal wounds to each of the other Raiders. The Mandrake squads that were on either no man's land objectives were removed by Rubrics - on mostly via mind bullets, the other via teleporting flamers. My shooting then took out another Raider with the terminators, and the Contemptor managed to line up shots into the disembarked Incubi and take them out. When the central spawn took out a Wrack squad in combat and piled into a Kabalite squad to deny a blaster shot it capped a brutal first turn from TS
Drukari moved up to respond and started poorly when the 7 Dark Lances from the Ravager/Raider managed a solitary wound on my Contemptor, which then became minimum damage just to rub it in. Still the combat phase was brutal - the Succubus alone managed to take my central spawn squad, the last Incubi squad took out my Flamer Rubric squad (after a Warrior squad had to sacrifice themself to tank the overwatch) the Court of the Archon left a Rubric squad on a single wound and the Ravagers took out 2 Spawn.
Despite the damage done by Drukari, TS were in a great position with Drukari fully exposed. The turn started poorly, Ahriman and the Demon Prince moving up aggressively to try and snipe the Succubus with mortal wounds and sadly ended up leaving it on a wound in what ended up being a poor psychic phase. However with the Ravagers in the open the Contemptor and Terminators were able to take out both of them and my Rhino's took out 3 Incubi to keep the damage piling on. The terminators charged into the court of the Archon and left just 2 models left.
Drukari were running on fumes, but they still had some powerful characters left. The Succubus took its revenge taking out Ahriman and Drazhar and the Archon charged my Demon Prince. The Prince managed to pass all its saves against Drazhar, took only a mild scratch from the Archon and promply murdered Drazhar - who failed all 3 of the saves (including a re-roll) he was asked to make. We played until the next psychic phase where the Succubus and Archon were taken out and we talked the game out from there with TS essentially unopposed from there. Final score - TS 95 Drukari 60
Game 3 - Vital Intelligence
Matt's List:
Death Guard - Mortarion’s Anvil
Demon Prince
Lord of Virulence
3 squads of Poxwalkers (11/11/10)
3 Deathshroud Squads - (4/3/3)
Foul Blightspawn
3 Foetid Bloat-Drones with Fleshmowers
3 Plague Burst Crawlers.
If there was ever a mission to play DG on its Vital Intelligence. Given Matt had a psyker for me to get some easy Wrath of Magnus of points I had an excellent mission, one great secondary option (rounded out by Data intercept and Engane on all fronts) and some great tools for taking Death Guard apart. Matt responded with Assaintation, Spread the Sickness and TTL (DP, 4 man Deathshroud and Plague Burst Crawler.)
I won the first turn roll of and went in with one goal - to avoid a big midfield brawl like the metaphorical plague Matt's army wanted to spread. I moved up with a Rhino/Rubric Squad onto two objectives on the left flank, and pushed a Rhino onto one on the far right flank to put some objective pressure on, whilst my flamer squad teleported across the battlefield - mostly just to smite the Poxwalkers to ensure Wrath of Magnus turn one, before unleashing their flamers into the squad to take them out capping a excellent turn one in terms of board position, but not much in the way of damage.
Matt's turn began about as poorly as he could hope for with triple 1 on advance roll (including a re-roll) to ensure he couldn't get on any central objective apart from one with a Bloat Drone. His shooting managed to take out four spawn, but there was already a sense this was going to be a seriously uphill struggle - especially as he lacked the speed to get over to my left flank and dislodge me.
Turn two I teleported my terminator blob to the other side of a wall via the Crystal and screened them with a Rubric squad/the last Spawn to avoid any long bomb charges from anything other than the Flesh Drone. The Scarab Terminators unleashed their payload into the TTL Deathshroud and left DG in a horrendous position
Forcing the pace with Death Guard is always tough, and Matt gave it a great shot given the position - focusing on doing as much damage as possible the Plaugeburst Crawlers combined with the Drone's charge managed to take out 5 of the terminators and soften up my large spawn squad, whilst the various Plague flamers started to take a toll in my flamer Rubric squad as the Death Guard army split around the central objective.
Still despite a good turn on the damage front - Death Guard were already well behind on both primary and secondary and without really a way to change the course on either. Technically turn 3 from a TS perspective was a bit disappointing - the Plague Drone that had charged the terminators was finished off in the psychic phase to allow the terminators to shoot into a Deathshroud squad but Matt protected them with a great use of cloud of flies to limit them to a few potshots into a Plague Crawler instead. The Contemptor did manage to finish off a Plague Crawler it had been shooting since turn one, but it was a rather mediocre turn from TS.
Death Guard continued their resurgence on the board, albeit it remained a poor position. The Deathshroud, which had been protected by a cloud of flies charged up and took out Ahriman, but couldn't take out the escorting Rubric squad to allow TS to cling to the objective. The advance stalled however when the two respective Demon Princes collided and the TS survived the Death Guards blows and the Lord of Virulence. Come the TS turn, the various TS casters left the Death Guard Prince barely alive, and the TS Prince tanked another round of combat before slaying the Death Guard Prince to end what remained of the contest. Final score 89-45 to TS.
So TS went unbeaten and took 1st place at the tournament! The Terminators were clearly the stars of the show - between their mobility options they stayed out of trouble and their ability to turn on damage/resilience at range (normally costing a lot of CP, but utterly worthwhile) were needed were game changing in every match. They rarely needed to force the pace in combat/with aggressive movement as a result, their combat only came up once of note in the entire event, albeit it was a powerful option that had to be respected. The Volkite Contemptor was probably the weakest link of the event - it's clearly a great unit but it rolled a tad disappointingly throughout. Elsewere the various charaters all had there moments - but the DP ability to tank a likewise equally murderous charge and either hit them back with huge force or blast 5+ mortal wounds back (Doombolt, Smite and often spending Cabal Points for extra mortals) came in key at a few times - albiet I was normally in a strong position when he was exposed. The Rhino/Spawn did their jobs of being annoying units to deal with without getting a chance to shine and the Rubrics kept the Primary ticking over when the first wave came out.
It was a great first outing at a tournament for the TS (in 9th at least, a more Tzaangor/Chaos Soup version was my go to in 8th before I switched to Eldar when I started doing these write ups) and Nick did a great job organising/running his first event as TO. The event capped what had been way above expectation year in terms of tournament results, with the LGT run a particular highlight, on a very high note. With no events booked for a while, I just have to look forward to playing more events next year!