So it was that my third weekend in a row was a 40k tournament! All of them were ITC using the old (2019) missions. I used the same list in each event:
Custom Craftworld - Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots (all detachments)
CP - 10
Battalion
HQ - Farseer, Shuriken Pistol, Witchblade - 110pts.
HQ - Warlock - Shurkien Pistol, Singing Spear - 50 pts.Warlord.
Troops - 4 Dire Avengers, Avenger Exarch (2* Shuriken Catapults) Bladestorm - 58 pts.
Troops - 4 Dire Avengers, Avenger Exarch (2* Shuriken Catapults) Bladestorm - 58 pts.
Troops-5 Rangers 60 pts.
Elites - 4 Striking Scorpions, Striking Scropion Exarch with Scoprion's Claw, Crushing Blow - 54 pts.
Elites - 10 Wraithblades, Ghostaxe and Forceshield - 350 pts.
Heavy Support - 3 Support Weapons, 1 D-Cannon, 2 Vibro Cannons - 130 pts.
Heavy Support - 3 Support Weapons, 3 Vibro Cannon - 105 pts
Dedicated Transport - Wave Serpent, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Twin Starcannon - 146 pts
Spearhead
HQ - Wraithseer, D-Cannon - 135 pts
Heavy Support - Wraithlord, two Shuriken Catapult, Aeldari Missile Launcher, Bright Launcher - 120 pts.
Heavy Support - Wraithlord, two Shuriken Catapult, Aeldari Missile Launcher, Bright Launcher - 120 pts.
Heavy Support - Wraithlord, two Shuriken Catapult, Aeldari Missile Launcher, Bright Launcher - 120 pts.
Spearhead
HQ - Spiritseer - Shuriken Pistol - 55 pts
Heavy Support - Night Spinner - 112 pts
Heavy Support - Night Spinner - 112 pts
Heavy Support - 3 Support Weapons, 3 Vibro Cannon - 105 pts
Pretty exhausting by the end of all three. For those interested I went 3-1 + a bye at Surrey Championship round one and did a summary of the event with the winner in a podcast which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSGQatrJHdQ&t=2229s, and went 3-3 at a tournament in Bournemouth - the schedule was such that ever game felt rushed with little time for breaks and I didn't get any real pics to go back to do a rundown of the event as a super quick recap -
Round 1 - Played James Grover from Goonhammer, he wrote about his side of the game at https://www.goonhammer.com/tournament-report-beachhead-brawl/. The game itself started horrifically, but managed to stabilize through turns 2/3 whilst always seeming behind until a couple of lucky breaks managed to turn the game around. By the end James ran out of steam I took a close win.
Round 2 - Franco - Nurgle + TS. Close game, started very well for me but deep striking Obliterators threatened to turn the game around. However my strong early turns put me well ahead as well as my Nightspinners killing his Engineers (nurglings) whilst mine Engineers were untouched game me the win.
Round 3- Iron hands planes + artillery. Went first, killed stuff, he blew me off objectives and typically grabbed kill more/hold more most turns. Both sides left devastated but Wraithguard being unable to tank a charge from Centurions meant I didn't have enough punch to finish and lost a semi-close game
Round 4 - Sisters. Started poorly, Exorcists did a number first turn and my shooting largely wiffed. My Wraithguard tied up two rhinos with most of his CC troops in for 5 battle rounds. The Vibro cannons managed to win the ranged duel v the Exorcists which combined with me controlling more objectives for a tight win.
Round 5 - Blood Angels. They went first and killed basically all my Wraith units. I hit back and killed most of his first wave but got obliterated by wave 2.
Round 6 - Ad mech/guard. Close cagey game after a brutal first turn left me reeling on a high LOs blocking board. Almost managed a tie or maybe even a win on points but Wave Serpent failed 3/3 saves from his last shooting in round 6 to swing the game right at the deft.
So going into Winter Warfare I was 6/4 with the list over the 2 events. The back to back nature of the events meant I never intended on changing up the list, with only a mild thought of changing the entire list to something else like TS as a change of pace. In the end I stuck, not wanting to relearn an army during a tournament.
Game 1 -
List
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Pregame thoughts - Brutally efficient list first! A friend of mine had played this list at Bournemouth and I'd been interested in trying it, although if I'm honest I didn't really want to play against it! Plan was to go first, try and kill one of the Lord of Skulls then deep strike Rangers somewhere to try and snipe the Herald with the crown and use the Guard/Avengers to try and move block the Skulls.
The Game - both of us deployed rather aggressively on the line, none of us could hide really and I wanted as many shots as possible if I went first. Sadly I lost the roll off for the first turn and my hope rather died there.
The Skulls mostly focused on the Wraithlords with there hades cannons and there Icor cannons picked of Vibros here and there. Whilst my opponent almost comically failed to cast infernal power each turn they managed Cursed Earth faultlessly, a trade I'd have happily swapped. In response when I failed to kill a Lord of Skulls with return fire turn one and was behind on points meaning it was going to be near impossible to catch up.
The Wraithguard were a lone source of comfort in the game - they did almost no damage to the Lord of Skulls, but almost managed to kill a Lord Discordant that charged them in a turn leaving him with a solitary wound. Their main use was plugging a gap between hills turn after turn after turn (with buffs) and I managed to score hold more repeatedly as a result despite repeated charges from one/two lord of Skulls.
Sadly my rangers failed to do any damage when they arrived and even with a farseer+quicken+smite YOLO attempt to get the Master of possession I couldn't interrupt any of the buffing characters. Low on big guns the Skulls went almost uncontested as my targets switched to the Obliterators. Despite the pummeling from two Lord of Skulls the Wraithguard lasted until almost the end of the game to keep the scoreline to a respectable, if flatterting 26-31 loss.
Postgame thoughts - Reasonably happy with the game all things considered. The Wraithguard were awesome despite their lack of damage and kept me technically in the game and stopped a tabling. Otherwise didn’t have enough guns/big enough counter attack to hit back going second.
Round 2 -
List
Pregame thoughts - Much more confident about this one. Magnus can be a pain, but the Vindicators should be easy enough targets. The Terminator Sorcerers could be awkward, but I have a lot of wounds for smite to get through and can hopefully things with throwaway units.
I 'lost' the deployment role off and got to go first. Given the vanguard deployment I deployed on the line again trying to push Magnus back to the far corner, or else be in range of all my guns.
Magnus did hide at the back, so even with Warp time he couldn't get into my lines to cause havoc. Thankfully I wasn't seized on so I my wave serpent up to eat up smites with some avengers/scorpions inside to try and contest the objective after.
Turn one went mostly to plan. I killed two Vindicators and some cultists and lost the Wave Serpent in response to smites/Magnus flying in to punch it to Oblivion. On turn two my army then focused everything it had on Magnus, reducing him to 6 wounds as Magnus 3++ and -1 to hit proved a huge pain.
The game threatened to swing decisively as turn 2 got off to a horror start when a terminator sorcerer killed 3 Vibro cannons, did 7 wounds to a Wraithlord and about 4 to another...with one spell! Thankfully however I managed to stop Magnus healing himself. When my opponent charged into the mess of a combat around Magnus with some summoned Brimstone Horrors and Rubrics I interrupted with my Wraithblades who managed to high-roll and kill Magnus.
From there the game swung quickly in my favour. The Wraithguard were essentially uncontested from here on out and held the middle whilst my shooting was free to pick up most of the remaining Rubrics and characters whilst the Psychic might of the TS wasn't able to compete with the Vibro cannons in a ranged duel and managed to round out a comfortable 33-17 win.
Postgame thoughts - First score on the board! Gameplan worked out well, and despite one ludicrous spell I was mostly able to contain the TS mortal wound output. The Wraithseer one deny tends to be crucial in these matchups, most of the rest of the time in games like these the two sides casters tend to play a merry game of being 24.5 away from each other but the Wraithseer tends to get up in the middle and get a few denies in to cause issues.
Game 3
List:
Pregame thoughts - Blood Angels armies tend to be diametrically opposed to mine, and as such tend to go like this - if they go first, they double move and destroy me, if I go first I kill their stuff on table and screen out second wave. So the game plan was simple - go first! Terrain was heavier on this table than previous which could have been an issue, but some elevated rocks which we played as hills helped out.
I deployed mostly on the line with my Wraith units, and Vibros on elevated positions. In response he put his two death company on the line and hide everything else which wasn't an eliminator
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Thankfully I won the roll off for the first turn. Joshua moved up one of the Death company squad and I threw everything at it, managing to kill them. I moved the Wraithguard with protect/fortune up the middle to await the counter attack in a spot where they couldn't be ignored, but I could shoot everything at next turn. As a bonus, my Nightspinners managed to pick up the Eliminators so my charters could run around freely.
The Blood angels response was to throw everything at the Wraithguard. They tanked the first hits from the death company well, but failed to do any noticeable damage when they interrupted. As the characters attacks struggled to make their way through the Wraiths it got to a stage where they were neutered as a threat, but were locked in combat. I started to take saves on my armour at the end to ensure enough died so they wouldn't be trapped, but had to use a re-roll to fail a passed morale test to ensure they wouldn't as they decided to start passing there FNP rolls too late!
Thankfully the game from there went relatively smoothly. I picked up the Death company and a couple of characters with my shooting to essentially win the game there and then, Sanginor, a Smash captain and a Librarian dreadnought managed to cause some havoc for another turn before the remaining threats were swept away leaving me with a 26-16 win.
Postgame - not alot to take away here. If I'd gone second I'd have gotten smashed. The Wraithgaurd doing their job too well was a mixed blessing after they started there saves poorly then started bossing them when I wanted them to die! Thankfully though it worked out well enough.
Game 4 - Tau
List:
Pregame thoughts: A new day and a refreshed me played Edward, who I'd played once before in a TS v Tyranids game all about movement and combat - this matchup was unlikely to have the same attributes! I hadn't faced a Triptide list before and was concerned, especially going second. However I was able to deploy most of my Vibros away back from the Riptides to make them a lesser target and put my Wraith units upfront and felt pretty good going into turn one.
Edward moved his castle up, and threw one Coldstar deep into my lines to kill a Nightspinner before annihilating my Wraithguard completely. I wasn't too upset as I didn't fancy them doing much in the match up and most of my guns were therefore fine. With drones in the middle I moved two Avenger squads out of the Wave Serpent and managed to clear enough drones with them + Night Spinner to allow me to shoot the closest Riptide without his look-out-sir-buddies. As a bonus, one of his commanders was closer to a number of the Vibro cannons and they managed to plink off a few wounds when he failed to pass them onto drones.
From there the pattern essentially repeated itself twice more - the Tau butchered my Avengers and a Wraithlord, but my Wraithseer passed 3 invuls of a commander's fusion shots. Even without the Avengers the smites+executioner did enough work to clear space for my big guns to shoot a riptide and kill another.
Turn 3 the Tau largely whiffed trying to get the last Nightspinner and I was able to clear off the last Riptide and commanders, when the Scorpions managed to take the bonus objective as well it resulted in a huge win. Final result - 38, 18.
Postgame - Army mostly worked at peach efficiency here. The loss of the Wraithguard was a shame, but my guns managed to out-do their tau equivalents. Whilst not lucky as such, I had almost exactly enough firepower each time to kill enough drones (mostly through smites from my casters) to clear off just enough drones that the big Wraiths could do some serious damage on the Riptides each turn, only a couple more drones or a poor Executioner here and there could have been a different game.
Game 5
List
Pregame thoughts - Nasty looking list, and a high terrain density could cause us both problems. Similar to game one, going first was key here with so many high toughness wounds to chew through. A win could mean a podium finish here and a successful submarine attempt!
Game - Sadly this game went wrong quickly. Didn't manage to go first and the Knights weapons were exceptionally good for taking out Vibros and Wraiths. I lost a Wraithseer, Wraithlord, and a number of Vibro cannons. In response I quickened up the Wraithblades and combined with my armies firepower managed to kill a knight, only for it to successfully revive itself.
Jack played cagely around the Wraithguards, mostly ignoring them and throwing infantry around them to keep his knights safe as he picked off my shooting threats effectively. By time his turn two was over the game was over as a contest.
I managed some minor victories on the way back, my farseer got yolo-quickened to smite the revived knight to death, which exploded doing a huge number of mortal wounds to the ensuing masses, and my Wraithguard managed to trap some units to make a annoyance of themselves and pick up some secondaires along the way.
It was all mostly academic though, when the Gallant on my right flank obliterated two Wraithlords the contest was over.
Final result - finished 18 out of 75, near the top of 3-2 bracket and top Aeldari player! As a result the final standing across the three events was 9/6 (plus bye), or a 3/2 ratio, so yay for going exactly as the blog name intends.
The list certainly has power, although by the end I did long for something more aggressive. The Wraithblades were always my favorite unit to use as a result, although I'm not sure they ever got their points back they were crucial to the list. The Vibro cannons were either:
A - Amazing, deleting opposition units with concentrated fire often winning the game.
or
B - Destroyed quickly and easily, giving up kill more and often butchers/another secondary putting me on a back foot I couldn't recover from.
Typically A was going first and B was going second. They were nearly always the unit my opponent picked out as being a pain, but there tendency to be good only if I went first or opponent couldn't deal with made them such a swingy unit to bring to the table, even if their output was super reliable, if not massively swingy.
Otherwise the Wraithseer probably proved that he had enough going for him that he was better than his Lordly brothers, the Invul, Strength boost and lack of LoS winning out over the extra range and versatility of the Lords. Maybe a 2-2 split is better.
The Trio of Farseer-Warlock-Spiritseer were awesome. No-one needs to be told how good Eldar psykers are, and it's probably the lesser used powers that these cast. Fortune, Protect and Quicken were the go to - Doom v Executioner was only ever a one of and match up dependant and Jinkx was also a rarity. They spent most of the games buffing Wraithguard then switching to mortal wounds when they ran out of buff targets. All were great.
The Avengers/Rangers did their job. Never flashy, often asked to do dirty work they were solid and expendable. Good troops in other words.
The Wraithguard were rather opposite to Vibros- they tended to do better going second when I was struggling as their ability to hold ground and threaten was something the list badly needed. However they did take up alot of points and in no games did they ever go through an army in the same way other things did. It's possible 10 was too many, although it's also possible they need to be in a different detachment as they don't gain a lot from Expert Crafters, and nothing from masterful shots.
The Scorpions were a late inclusion in the list and they did their job well enough- a DS option for objectives and a threat to any mid-low tier character that got close. Certainly replaceable, but they felt like a better option than the Swooping Hawks I'd been using previously for the role. A bigger unit of them in a more combat oriented detachment certainly seems like a good option in future games.
Finally the Nightspinners, absolutely irreplaceable. They had a huge impact on games and made Engineers a really poor pick and usually punished anyone who picked it. Whilst they never went through a list, they were always solid and with the ignore cover they usually scored some vital kills along the way.