A new year brings a new Chaos list. Since my last GT 'competitive' level event with my Lord of Skulls LGT (which incidentally the CA2022 changes seemed to almost laser focused to target with nerfs, I can only assume for the gall of having a Chaos list go unbeaten at a large event) list I've been playing almost entirely Thousands Sons - either solo or mixing with our Chaos factions. After trying out a few of the Cults, Duplicity ended up as by far my favourite - not necessarily the most powerful (Time has some really good play) but I always wanted to have the options Duplicity provided over anything else.
My list:
I'll go through the list in more detail at the end with my thoughts on how units performed, but to summarise quickly for those unaware of TS and don't want to look up loads of spells:
Ahriman to cast high charge spells
Demon Prince to chuck Mortal wounds out
Infernal master to provide +1 Str to ranged weapons to one of the Scarab squads and use his other cast for Physic Interrogation
Utility Spells on Rubrics/Terminators, with both terminators having Temporal Surge to move again for flexibility.
Every caster has access to a teleport spell
Basic game plan was simple - Terminators guns were the main source of damage - One terminator squad to get the Internal Masters buff, the other to use Wrath of the Wronged (TS Veterans of the Long War.) Combined this mean 84 high ap 2/3 accurate shots, a few similar D3 damage ones thrown in wounding nearly anything on either 4's or 5. Whilst a great general purpose threat, the shooting was designed for armies like Custodes - with little chance for them to benefit from Transhuman, and relatively little impact from turning off re-rolls the weight of fire can really drag their high priced units down. I’ve heard alot of people say Custodes are a bad match up for TS - and whilst it's true that the most popular version has a 4+ against FNP, smite spam is not what the list is designed to do. Given Smite is one of the easiest things for an opponent to play around I've always tried against leaning into it as the main damage source - and the popularity of Custodes/Grey Knights really double down on that.
Apart from the terminators, the casters aim to buff, the spawn were there for a mix of countercharge/screening and the Cultists/Tzaangors were there for actions, objective holding and screening - with any damage dealt considered strictly a bonus.
Game 1: Abandoned Sanctuaries:
Opponents List:
My Secondaries: Stranglehold, Bring it Down, Retrieve Nachmud Data
Opponents Secondaries: Stranglehold, Assassinate, Retrieve Nachmud Data
Pregame thoughts: To be honest, at the time most of my thoughts were in the region of “Aaagh Panic” as I had to rush to the venue to narrowly avoid the cut off for the first game after the rail system imploded. Sadly my opponent (who I think was the same person I played in round 5 at Fun n Fluff tournament which I covered on this site also) didn't show and all my pregame prep for Death Guard got swapped with Orks which I know much less about. With 5 objectives the plan was simple - try and crush a flank, take out the scariest threats and bully the middle with Obsec in the mid/late game whilst hoping none of the scary looking Ork guns rolled hot.
I deployed pretty spread out with a cultist unit outflanking to allow RND. I won the roll off for first turn and pushed up for a easy stranglehold - touching all 3 middle objectives with my chaff and teleporting one terminator unit across to the other flank, which in combination with the other getting a range boost from Emphyric Guidance allowed me to open up into the Orks and take out one of the biker units and starting to whittle down the Deffkopta which seemed like the most likely unit to take out my Terminators with there high volume amount of damage 3 shots. Taking out 3 of them was slightly less than hoped, but still a reasonable start with some nice secondary points coming in.
Having pushed forward there was space behind me for the Ork plane to get behind - I had made sure that my two fragile casters were within 3 of a Rubric marine squad to allow them to use Implable Guardians (TS bodyguard) for this so the plane couldn't get a easy assainate meanwhile the Orks pushed hard into the middle - the large biker unit and remaining Deffkoptas surging forward taking out my Tzaangors on the objective in shooting and my lone spawn on the right flank fell - its job done, whilst the Bikers made a long bomb charge into one of my 5 man spawn units killing 4, and two Buggies charged the other spawn squad however they only managed to take out one, leaving the objective as mine. Thankfully a lot of the Ork shooting into my tougher Rubrics/Terminators mostly whiffed and whilst the near total loss of one spawn squad was a pain, I was in good shape at the end of the Ork turn.
The game had certainly accelerated very early, and target priority this turn was crucial. With most of my screening gone I needed a big turn. I left the right flank undefended outside of a sole spawn who went in to move block the teleporting Buggie which had made its home in my lines, whilst the 4 man Spawn fell back to allow one terminator unit to shoot them - managing to take them both out after some Mortal wounds had been sent into to soften them up. The other terminator unit Temporal Surged (Not calling it Warp Time still feels weird) to make up ground into the middle and in combination with Ahriman's mortal wound output took out most of the bikes in the middle, before in combination with one Rubric squad charged the Deffkopta taking them few of them out. Whilst the fight for the middle had gone swimmingly, some excellent saves from the Ork plane saved it from the Deamon Prince who after softening it up with mortal wound had hoped to finish it off - the only saving grace was the plane had to fly off next turn due to lack of space.
Going into Ork turn two we were both doing equally well on primary, but my secondary pressure was starting to tell - especially as the Ork bikers felt forced to get stuck to keep primary going as a battle rather than going for RND. They managed to get enough Obsec only the middle to retake it from the centre and take out my Two Rubric marine units, but little more. When the Wartrike failed to take out enough Spawn on the left flank to retake the objective it felt like the Ork pushing was losing steam. With both Terminator units left at near full efficiency and the Orks Exposed I had a chance to strike a hammer blow.
The Demon Prince Flew up into the Centre to take out bikers, and the Terminators let loose - taking out the remaining bikers in the middle and a barrage of mortal wounds took out a Deff Rolla which had taken out the Rubric squad. Despite the fight's last aura on the Trike the left terminator squad managed to take it out in combat after shooting it up. With the left secured, and the middle guarded by a Prince and Scarabs the game was essentially over as a contest.
Orks came one last time - The Warboss and bike managed to get into Ahriman and take him out but even with the returning plane the Orks had no way back into the game and Thousand Sons romped to victory - final score 93- 43 to Thousand Sons.
Postgame thoughts: Game went pretty much to plan - although things had looked very scary going into turn two with so much of the Orks stuff threatening to break through. It's hard to pick up in reports, but the ability to auto cast a spell via Cabal points was key to the plan - the early teleport from one squad going from the right to left flank to both allow an early engage and apply pressure, and next turn the Temporal surge back to middle to clear it up. Even with all the fun uses of Cabal points for damage/extra CP etc anything key (and nothing is typically more powerful in 40k than movement) I tended to autocast all event to ensure movement based powers went off without a hitch and it always added so much reliability to a game plan based around numerous casts.
Game 2: Data Scry Salvage
Opponents list:
My Secondaries: Engage on All Fronts, Retrieve Nachmud Data, Mental interrogation
Opponents Secondaries: Stranglehold, Grind them Down, Abhor the Witch.
Pregame thoughts: The big golden boogie man is here. Having played a few game against the new book my biggest takeaway is that a head on clash against Custodes was bad - thankfully TS Duplicity have a big mobility advantage against Custodes and with a 6 objective mission I felt confident if I could deal with the bikes than crushing a flank and leaving the other felt like a winning plan - especially as Stranglehold on 6 and Abhor the Witch meant Custodes had to A - be very aggressive, and spread across at least 3 of the Center objectives.
I won first turn roll off and with a Bike squad and Telemon visible on the left, both terminators units let rip - one with +1 to hit/wound managed to take out a Bike Squad and the other with +1 Strength from the Infernal Master managed to start chipping away at the Telemon, although some good saves limited most of the damage. With a Spawn squad with 4+ invul ahead of the termies to screen and the left flank looking vulnerable for Custodes I was very happy with turn one.
Custodes pushed up as hard as they could. Their shooting didn't have much of note to target so they were left in a tough spot. They made three charges - the Telemon and the Spear Custodian Guardian squad charged the spawn and the last Preator squad charged Tzaangor - however Tzeetch protected both of its mutated Children - only two Spawn and even after morale 2 Tzaangor clung to life
Going into my turn two I was in a good spot – I had a chance to put a wall of Obsec on the centre left objective to make it incredibly difficult for Custodes to score Stranglehold, and my Terminator units were far enough away from the right flank (with the Characters tucked behind them) that Abhor was also going to be a real struggle for Custodes whilst my secondaries were starting to tick up nicely. After teleporting a Rubric squad deep into Custodes deployment zone for Engage points/trying to split attentions of the units guarding it, I unleashed my Demon Prince upwards towards the left flank, spitting out Mortal Wounds into the Spear Guardians (who had switched into a different Host and were more vulnerable to Mortals as a result) my terminator squad with +1 Strength crippled the Telemeon whilst the other with +1 to wound took out the last Bike squad to limit the response the Custodes could do back. In the assault phase, the Prince and terminator squad finished off the Telemon and Guardian squad.
Custodes had one last wave of assault to come into the left flank, but it did involve both Trajann and the Shield-Captain on Jetbike (albeit with a long charge) with the Saggittarum in support. Custodes made strong ground on the right flank – crushing the Spawn unit I had placed there to potentially finish off the Bikers whilst they made there last real push on the left – The Prince and Trajann traded blows to minimal effect – even with Trajann fighting twice via the moment shackle – the combination of -1 damage, 4+ invul and the Conniving Plate halving Trajann's attacks blunting the Custodians output to great effect even though the Prince wasn't able to do any great deal back thanks to Transhuman. The Saggitarum fought with the Scarabs on the objective, taking the objective back for the Emperor but the fight also ended in a pretty honourable draw. When the Bike Captain failed to get into combat,
With the Custodes last counterpunch failing to land a telling blow TS were in a strong position – I was ahead on primaries and it was going to get very tough for Custodes to keep up on that and they were already a long way behind on secondaries. From here I just wanted to ensure there wasn't any way back, and ensure all the threats to my left flank were dealt with. To further annoy the Custodes my two Cultists units (one via outflanking) managed to take both of the right objectives from them and the Rubric squad in the backfield (which had been engaged to minimal effect by the Veilus Prator) fell onto the Custodian home objective to stop any primary for them next turn. The Bike Captain was taken out in shooting by the unengaged terminator unit , who then charged into the Sagittarum to finish them off. Despite my best efforts involving as many mortal wounds, a unit of spawn charging in and the Demon Prince's own attacks, Trajann still held firm against the onslaught – a lone speak of gold in a sea of blue, although his attacks again failed to put much damage into my Prince.
It was bleak for Custodes, about 20ish points behind already going into their turn and with only Chaff for targets outside of a few measly shots. They cleaned up the Cultists squads on the right flank with little difficulty but the Rubrics on their home objective stayed firm to deny them even the most outside shot of a way back. Trajann and the Prince continued to trade blows to minimal effect as the end drew in.
Victory was confirmed next turn for Thousand Sons – the Rubrics managed to smite their way to victory over the Prator, the Demon Prince finally triumphed over Trajann in a similar manner. The terminators managed to soften up the last Guardian squad before one managed a long charge into them to take them out. Final score – 89 -30 to Thousand Sons.
Postgame thoughts: Very happy for the win here – I had really struggled against Custodes when they first came out and came to the conclusion that whatever army I picked, I didn't want a head on clash. To that end the 6 objectives suited me incredibly well – arguably the best mission for me to play Custodes at as it stretched them thinner than they would have liked and allowed me to pick a flank to crush, and whilst my right flank was crushed in similar fashion it managed to frustrate the Custodes on primary all game – limiting them to just 4 points there all game. The game would have been very different on a 5 objective map, where the extra focus on the centre would have focused me to choose between damage or objectives in a very different way. That said I was very happy my strategy paid off here in a big win.
Game 3 – Conversion
Opponents list:
My secondaries: Stranglehold, Physic Interrogation, RND
Opponents Secondaries: No Prisoners, Stranglehold, Assassinate
Pregame thoughts – Crusher stampede in David Gaylards hands – not feeling the most confident about this one! On the bright side Crusher stampede's -1 damage trait was mostly limited to a combat only threat given my shooting profile and my potential mortal wound output lined up nicely. Like the above matches, I wanted to keep a reasonable distance from the big monsters and try and let my terminators/MW to clear off the big stuff at a distance – getting too close seemed like it would be fatal (especially with Shadow in the Warp to mess around my casts.)
I won the roll off for first turn – worried about the Harpies ability to fly across and one shot a character with mortal wounds and given its slightly more exposed position (from a flank) I pushed off towards my left flank with one terminator unit, put some Tzaangors in the middle for strangle and pushed my other terminators towards the right to try and take out the Warriors screening out any DS charges. I put my chaff out in front of both terminator units to try and prevent charges – but for some reason I completely forgot about the Swarmlords double move and didn't fully encircle them. The terminators weren't able to kill the harpy, but did put it down to 2 wounds and the other terminators managed to remove the Warrior squad. All in all I was pretty happy with the turn, despite having my first interrogation attempt denied (I had saved my can't be dispelled Cabal points for extra range on Terminators should they could engage the Harpy whilst still having Spawn in front of them.)
Then things went wrong. Badly wrong. The Harpy flew up to the middle to contest the centre objective and the Hive Guard let loose into my terminator units. Despite using 3cp to -1 the damage, a combination of great exploding 6's to hit and the damage re-rolls from the Maleceptor tore threw my central squad killing 5, before they shot again on my other squad 'protected' by Glamour of Tzeentch for -1 to hit, killing another 5. One of the Hive Tyrants flew behind them thanks to the Swamlord's double moved, and a combination of the Crusher Stampede Mortal wounds on charge, and its powerful attacks killed the last 5. It then overran back to its deployment zone back out of reach. As if to rub it in, the Tzaangors then lost all four of the bodies on the objective to morale/combat attrition to lose the centre objective for an early swing on Stranglehold/primary.
Reeling, the game already felt over – and the two Hierodules had yet to get anywhere near me still! With little left to lose I charged everything forward, hoping for Nids next turn to somehow be less brutal than the first. I finished off the Harpy with little trouble and one squad of Spawn managed to take out another Warrior squad that had taken out the objective, but compared to the damage done to me it felt rather pitiful. My Daemon Prince Yolo teleported back behind the Hive Guard, and with a CP re-roll managed to make the charge into them, killing 3.
Without the full complement of Hive Guard, Nids next turn wasn't as explosive as the first, but it didn't need to be and was still brutal. With my primary damage dealers already crippled, they could focus on smashing my ability to play the mission. Both Hierodus came forwards to threaten each flank, one charging into a Rubric squad on the right (which had tried unsuccessfully to Cacodemonic curse the Hive Guard) – they held the initial onslaught and forced a fight twice response to be removed from the objective. Elsewhere the Hive Tyrants/Swamlord charged into the middle, annihilating my remaining Tzaangors – the Terminators held firm against one's charge but couldn't do any noticeable damage back into it. The Maleceptor kill of the Demon Prince via the mortal wounds on charges strat to cap another powerful turn for Nids.
I was technically keeping up on primary at this stage, but the writing was on the wall. I did manage to kill the Swamlord with mortal wounds (Nids had certainly won the Psychic War otherwise) and made some Yolo charges to try and get another stranglehold which sadly didn't pay off.
The rest was simply a formality, Nids proceed to delete everything left bar a Spawn and a Infernal Master who was able to cast one final Interrogation and I blew my last CP to allow him extra cast/cast after action so he could teleport away from a tad more on primary before the Hive Guard finished him off. Final score 95-47 to Nids.
Postgame thoughts: It's fair to say this game went wrong fast, and whilst I think I could have played better around the Swarmlord double move, it's hard to see a route to victory given how well I was crushed. Part of that was simply good play from David – he never let anything be exposed if he could help it, and whatever was closest to me typically always had a FNP from Catalyst to dent my output, however I was vastly outmatched in close combat, the psychic phase was edged by Nids (which given my superior numbers of casts was a big problem) and whilst I had more shooting output – the nature and excellent profile of there shots in my terminators meant I felt even if I had played more defensively to stop the early charges from Hive Tyrants, the Hive Guard were always going to clock me via attrition and force me to play an aggressive game I couldn't compete it – super brutal game. A quiet word for the Maleceptor who had a rather excellent game – it was probably the monster I rated least, yet its casting/dispelling caused a lot of problems for me and the re-rolls of damage on Hive guard felt like it was adding a damage to each shot making them even more brutal.
Game 4. Tear down Their Icons
Opponents list:
My Secondaries: Stranglehold, Physic Interrogation, Wrath of Magnus
Opponents Secondaries: Stranglehold, Warrior Pride, Assassinate.
Pregame thoughts: I'm not that familiar with the new Space Wolves, but the style was clear and broadly speaking the plan was the same as my default one v Custodes – try and keep some distance, screen out the Cavalry and take out the Dreadnoughts as early as possible as the plasma was the only ranged threat. Secondaries favoured me – I was worried about doubling up on two casting heavy secondaries (especially if Wolves stayed back) but felt if I wasn't scoring them, they were going to struggle to compete in the middle – and when Warrior pride was revealed (make 2+ charges in a turn) I was happy that along with Assassinate the Wolves would be playing the aggressive role that should allow me to score well back. Otherwise I was looking forward to the Prospero rematch.
I had deployed rather symmetrical – rather standard but the aim was to split the obsec so Tzaangors could start planting the mission specific demo charges turn one on the wolves side, and the other unit could defuse on the other flank . Space Wolves won the roll off for first and moved up having deployed defensively, whilst I could have got some angles via teleport to shoot them up I wasn't upset to go second and let them get closer although it did stop the demo charge plan. Otherwise the Space Wolf turn was pretty low key – outside of a combination of very strong rolls to take out my right flank Tzaangor unit (who again had the last 3 run away to stop any cheeky demo charges) and managed to take out 10 wounds worth of spawn due to a slight mistake in my deployment. However this was more of an annoyance than major blow with the Terminators having redeployed slightly to avoid taking any Plasma shots from the Dreads and ready to respond.
Similar to other games, turn one was fairly cautious – on my left flank I moved up terminators screened from charges by Spawn and boosted their range so they could start shooting up a Redemptor, leaving it on a solitary wound. In the middle Tzaangors moved up to take the point from the Bladeguard who had occupied it, but not before 3 of them had been killed from a variety of spells. On the right flank my other terminator unit opened up into one of the Thunderwolf cavalry units – but some good saves from on the Storm shields kept the damage to a minimum.
Space wolf turn two was again, reasonably limited – the last Blade guard jumped back into the middle objective and in combination from the Dreadnaughts shooting managed to kill 8 Tzaangors – the last two again running away. If I learnt one thing more than anything else at this event it's that Tzaangors are cowards! On the right flank the Thunderwolfs charged into the cultists who presented little other than a Speed bump for them.
Going into my turn two we were even on primary and with secondaries starting to go in my favour (mostly thanks to Assassinate being very awkward compared to Wrath of Magnus) I was able to keep taking my time (wrong cult I suppose) and focus on taking out key Space Wolf Units – on my left/top flank the Terminators moved up, splitting targets into both Dreads finishing off the injured one, and the other terminator unit managed to finish it off after the Thunderwolf Cavalry close to me has been smotted away. However,I failed to protect the right unit at the bottom from the Wolf guard – I just needed to move up a Rubric unit in the centre to block the space, as at this stage I felt rather confident and underestimated the Wolf Guard focusing on just screening the gaps between terrain to stop the Chaplin/next Thunderwolf charging into the terminators.
Going into Wolves turn 3 it was clear they needed to commit hard to stay in the game – we were tied on primary, but they were 9 points behind on secondaries with little way to turn that around and had taken real attrition damage at this point. They came out swinging – firstly a combination of fights last affects from the Chaplain/Librarian left me essentially unable to interrupt and they committed Assault intercessors into my Northern spawn unit, the Wolf Guard into my terminators, the wolf lord into a solo Spawn in the middle and the Thunderwolf unit and Chaplin into my southern spawn (with a failed charged from the last Thunderwolf unit into the Northern spawn.) Space Wolves burnt through a lot of CP in the combats (including using the 'rival' re-roll hits and wounds strat against TS units) to butcher there way through – by the time it was my turn to swing back 6 terminators (including 2 heavy weapons ones which I had to kill so I could fight back) and all the Spawn bar 2 fighting the Interssors were dead with only a solitary Wolf Guard killed in return as Space Wolves roared back into the contest.
I wasn't in a bad position, but the balance of power had shifted drastically in that turn and I needed to respond in kind. I teleported the Rubrics squad out of combat (via Crystal) to allow them to shoot and focused just about every casting into pure damage and rolled hot (either 2 or 3 super smites this turn) as the Wolf Guard were obliterated, the Chaplain wounded and the Demon Prince who had intended to challenge the Wolf Lord to an honourable duel changed his mind and through a combination of Smite, Deamonbolt and cabal points turn the Lord into a pile of ashes. My other terminator unit teleported across the board into the bottom right corner – they wanted to take out another Thunderwolf Unit but again some good saves kept the Thunderwolf units in a healthier shape than I wanted. Still the Chaplain was taken out by the Rubrics/remnants of the terminator squad and when I made a 9 inch charge with the other terminator squad to take the Wolf right objective it capped a strong turn back from Thousand Sons.
It was probably too far of a gap to close now at this point for the Wolves, (scores were about level after Wolves scored primary but before I had scored) but they managed another brutal series of charges. The assault interssors had managed to cut there way through the Spawn and went on to murder some Cultists on my top left objective. The last two Thunderwolf units lept into action charging the Daemon Prince in the middle, just managing to take him out whilst the Thunder hammers took a heavy toll on the Terminators killing around 6/7 after all the attacks were dealt out. The terminators took out two and left the last one back in response and kept the objective to ensure primary points were flowing in. The double exploding 6's from the Wolves doctrine/chapter tactic had been suitably savage again here.
Still, despite the damage the Wolves had done they were fighting to retake ground mostly rather than smash through, and I still had enough of a push left. The Rubrics/Ahriman finished off the Thunderwolf Cavalry in the centre and the Assault intercessors on the left, whilst a mini disaster truck the other unit engage with the last Thunderwolf standing – I'd planned to smite him off (using the flat 3 damage strat to ensure the last 2 wounds went) but rolled poorly on the initial cast in deny range of the Wolf Priest, went for the re-roll and perils instead, and had to CP that to ignore the perils result. The last Thunderwolf, clearly not impressed with this casting nonsense, then smashed the remaining terminators to take the objective back.
From here however the game wrapped up quickly, the last Thunderwolf couldn't manage to retake the middle, despite his best efforts against a Rubric squad with one sole survivor hanging onto the point. I had teleport a Scarab unit into Space Wolf terrority to try and plant a bomb – they were engaged by the Wolf Priest and Infiltrator squad who managed to kill one of the Scarabs (which pulled them out of combat with the Priest) and in return the Scarabs took ou the Infiltrators allowing them to plant a bomb in the final turn. Final score – 90- 63 to Thousand Sons.
Postgame thoughts: Very happy with the win – the first two turns went very well, which combined with slowing down the Space Wolves with chaff put me in a really strong position come turn 3. The Wolves really threatened to swing back hard – it makes me wonder if the Dreads had got Gatling shots and had been able to clear my chaff a turn quicker. What would have happened if the Wolves had been able to get some meaningful charges in a turn earlier. Looking back I my performance I got the overall strategy pretty much spot on but I made some tactical mistakes in turns 3-5 that could have stopped/slowed the Wolves regaining so much momentum so quickly (better screening against Wolf Guard and saving Cabal points to ensure the smite into the Thunderwolves couldn't be denied being the key moments.) That said, a win where you learn something is just about the best result IMO!
Game 5 – Recover the Relics
Opponents list:
My Secondaries: Engage (went back and forth between this and Stranglehold a lot) Physic Interrogation, Raise banners.
Opponents Secondaries – RND, Abhor the Witch, TTL (Crisis and Broadside units.)
Pregame thoughts: Up against Ed who you may recognise either from this blog as my GSC opponent at LGT (round 4) or from the excellent The Sandman Youtube channel. I wasn't especially confident about this one – firstly against Tau I would have to be far more aggressive than any other game, and with the amount of chaff I had what wasn't great, secondly and certainly related the mission was a tough one – with both armies separated by a big no man's land that needed crossing far apart from each batch of 3 objectives (in a reversal of the spot I was in against Custodes.) I haven't faced Tau in a competitive match and was expecting a tough match!
Tau won the first turn roll off – both of us technically did some pre game moves/redeploys which resulted in us moving about 6 models 3 inches combined.Both of us were able to hide behind the terrain in our deployment zones pretty well (with only some Tzaangors/Kroot in the open.) Tau turn one was very limited – a few out of LOS shots pinged out a few Tzaangor and started whittling down my Northern spawn squad but otherwise it was just a matter of barely moving out to touch the objectives for them.
Going into my turn 1 I had two choices – I could teleport both terminator units, try and hit the Tau units poking out from odd angles or try and sit back and weather the storm again and use some bodyguard shenanigans to keep primary tight/screen out the Vespid looking to get points for RND alternatively I could go all on with teleports, try to strike hard and weather the storm and Temporal Surge next turn into Tau lines. I was worried the Tau out of line of sight firepower would mean I came off second best (especially with kill points as part of mission primary), and equally after a long weekend of 40k my response I decided to go all in rather than play cagey. I teleported one unit up on the right, buffed it up with everything and unleashed into a Crisis suit – sadly a pretty incredible set of invuls meant the only damage I did was kill the drones – I can't complain too much as Ed borrowed my dice for the rolls! The terminators in the middle butchered a Firewarrior/Kroot Hound squad and the game was afoot.
Tau turn two was brutal despite the central Scarab unit touching dense terrain the combination of re-rolls, markerlights and sheer weight of firepower annihilated them completely. The other unit, protected by both -1 damage strat and 4+ invul faired only slightly better, when the dust settled on what felt like an endless Tau shooting phase 3 were left. Safe to say the gamble had backfired horrendously.
Already unable to engage Tau in a fair fight, I pulled things back on the top flank to try and hold it as long as possible, chucking the Spawn forwards onto the Tau objective whilst the Infernal Master, Daemon Prince and a Cultist squad onto it to try and hold the objective – with some Rubrics around for bodyguard potential as well. On the South side my remaining terminators and a Spawn unit charged forward to try and disrupt Tau for as long as possible on the flank. They cleared the Kroot off the objective and the Scarabs tagged the nearby Crisis suits to try and keep some manner of pressure on.
Technically even until the end of turn 3 I was ahead on points, but it was clear that advantage wasn't going to last. Tau obliterated everything on both the north side of the table in their shooting and the Crises suits on the south turned the Scarabs that had tagged them to molten slag (-1 damage wasn't even near enough to save them despite my best efforts.)
My turn 3 was a desperate last attempt to scramble any sort of face – the last of the Tzaangor charged forwards, and despite spending 2cp for re-roll hits managed only 1 wound onto the Stealth suits on the objective, although at least they retook it for a turn. With no shooting, and my only casting an action + temporal surge it was a laughably weak response.
From there it was only a matter of how much Tau could score as they romped to a 94-59 win.
Postgame thoughts: Ouch! Fair to say that I played this wrong. In terms of excuses, a lack of familiarity and a really harsh mission for me didn't help, but my gamble in teleporting both terminator units out in front of a Tau gun line was a disaster beyond any sort of redemption. When I played the mission more sending out Tzaangor/Spawn via Temporal surge I was disrupting Tau scoring and edging ahead. Hiding back for the first few turns, screening out the Vespid from RND swapping out Engage for TTL/a more passive secondary (possibly after they were revealed using the relevant strat for once) and forcing the Tau to try and come to hit so I can maybe hit them harder with more mortals would have certainly worked better – it's beyond a huge stretch to say this would have resulted in a win, but its would have certainly a closer game. Equally what's frustrating looking back, is whilst the Scarabs ranged output is strong, it's not 'point at a Crisis unit and delete it' strong and going back to my favoured crush a flank with both squads whilst trying to hide them (easier said than done with Tau's new mobility) was just a doubly poor move – even if moving the Scarabs up aggressively was the right move the time was wrong, again waiting another turn or two would have caused more problems and potentially allowed more damage as the Tau out of LOS shooting that I was worried about was never going to dent the terminators to any great extent, only pick off my chaff.
So I finished 3-2, a reasonable result but did feel a tad disappointed I couldn't make it one better with both losses being comprehensive – in both cases going into my turn 2 the game was over as a contest. In the end I finished 34 out of 109 registered players although the storm did cause some dropouts. Given I'd played some very strong lists not the worst result, but had hoped for better.
In terms of the list there's a rather interesting problem – the two Scarabs units are so key to the game plan with so much around bieng supported – either in terms of applying buffs or screening out threats. The games I lost were because when the Scarabs were taken out I didn't have a meaningful counter punch left (outside of the odd spawn charge) but the games I won were because I had enough expendable units to slow things down and allow the Scarabs to engage targets at their leisure.
The various HQ's were all excellent all weekend. Ahirman was the most consistent buffing key units and only dipping into damage when things got a bit too close, the Daemon Prince had some much needed counter punch and was one of a few units that could tank a charge and deal damage back without worrying and the Infernal Master (who normally gave up his cast for Interrogation) was excellent support/action monkey.
The troops were all a bit meh. Tzaangors were probably the pick of the bunch, doing some actions and occasionally tanking a charge well enough to leave some Obsec on a point. The Rubrics disappointed – they didn't really kill anything, and their support casting never made much of a difference (although the Cabal points were useful without question.) Cultists did typical Cultist things – sitting on points, screening, being an annoyance. I'm not sure between them they killed more than a single model outside of a Smite or two from the Rubrics – in short they were pretty good at playing the mission and propping the Scarabs up, but when forced into actual action they felt overpriced compared to stuff coming at them.
Scarabs were great? I think they were at least – they were certainly the most crucial part of the list and it's certainly no-coincidence that in the two games I lost they were killed in no time, and the games I won were incredible.
Everything applied to the troops could apply to the Spawn, only they were certainly better. Whilst lacking obsec/unable to the actions most of the actions that the troops were able to they provided a nice support role to the terminators – and had the ability to turn on damage when needed against other light/mid level engagements. Again against the heavier stuff they struggled, but that's not really their role in the list.
It's hard to know where to go from here with the list as a result – its a bit of a issue that any way to increase the pure damage of the list (adding in a contemptor/various daemon engine for example) requires cutting some variety of troop which hurts its to play the mission and makes the Scarabs more vulnerable as well, but keeping them keeps the lists key weakness to high damage ranged armies that can deal with the Scarabs. I did really enjoy the list – having ways to teleport around the board is way more fun and has many more options than its closest competitor Time (although without Cabal points in a soup list I do prefer the resurrection options of Time.) Ultimately it's a bit of a watch and see how the meta develops to see how much change is needed – if Custodes continue to dominate things (or other combat heavy armies emerge) then I think this is one of the better lists TS have to take them on, if Tau's rise is as bad as feared and/or Craftworlds end up heavy on the big guns then more of a drastic change is needed (pun intended.)