Continuing from Part 1, this covers game 2 and 3 of the tournament as well as my closing thoughts and possible improvements to game play.
Just throwing out my list again for convenience:
Game 2 - vs Imperium
The mission for this game was ITC's No Mercy with the diagonal Vanguard Strike deployment. My opponent was eventual Best General, Gavin, with a 3-0 record. His list included:
Guilliman, Celestine
50 Conscripts and their accompanying Commissar/Company Commander combo
2 Stormravens
A minimum sized unit of Heavy bolter Retirbutors
A Culexus assassin
2 minimum-sized scout squads with sniper rifles and a heavy weapon
A Thunderfire Cannon and
A unit of 3 boltstorm/fragstorm Aggressors
I won the roll off to choose deployment side and opted for the one with a ruins for my firebase and the 3 Maelstrom objectives were fairly even spaced across the table (1 in each deployment zone and 1 in the centre). He won the roll to go first with a 6 and advanced his conscripts down the centre of the table, stringing them back towards his deployment zone to block any deepstriking Grey Knights from my side. The Stormravens moved from the corners of the table into 6" formation with Guilliman for his buffs as he moved toward the cover in the centre of the table where the scouts had infiltrated during deployment. I had deployed 31" away from his Aggressors which were almost on the front line in anticipation of their maximum reach of 31" from their move, advance (with +1 from Roboute) and 18" weapon range. The Culexus also arrived from deep strike near Guilliman.
The heavy bolter Retributors took out a bunch of my Conscripts with a combination of their Act of Faith fire and the shooting phase and the hurricane bolters from the stormravens brought the rest of the 25 man Conscript unit down to 3. Their heavy weapons took out my Razorback and 2 Aggressors that I had thought were out of LOS. I had underestimated the height of the flyers. The scouts and thunderfire cannon took out a couple of heavy weapons from a Devastator squad which promptly dealt 4 wounds to a Stormraven with their return fire from the Company Ancient's standard, aided with re-rolls from the Chapter Master and Lieutenant nearby.
My turn 1 resulted in me bringing in only Draigo and a squad of Grey Knights in what I felt was my biggest error of the tournament as I thought the Culexus assassin was still in reserve and had not been brought onto the table. I felt that I didn't want to commit to the position of the bulk of my deep strikers before I knew where the anti-psyker assassin was going to be. In hindsight, as the Culexus was in the middle of the opposing army, I should have brought all 3 squads and both characters in to focus on thinning out the opposing Conscripts which acted as charge screens to the important targets. The remaining Devastators took down the damaged Stormraven, and alongside the GKSS, managed to take out a handful of Conscripts.
Gavin's second turn saw his Celestine slingshot herself into the heavy bolter/ missile launcher Devs on the ground floor of the ruins as his Aggressors, Scouts, Thunderfire cannon, and remaining Stormraven took out the GKSS accompanying Draigo and the other squad of 24 Conscripts of mine. My Chapter Master and Lieutenant that had counter-charged Celestine with heroic intervention only managed to take out a bodyguard of hers that turn.
On my turn 2, I brought in the remaining 2 squads of GKSS and the GK Librarian in the centre line of the table in my deployment zone and used Gate of Infinity on Draigo to appear next to them for his re-rolls. In hindsight once again, I should have had them come in on my left flank where Draigo currently already was and use Draigo to finish off Celestine but I felt that my 2 characters facing off with her could do the job (but they did not; leaving her with 3 wounds remaining) as she killed the Lieutenant in return. The 2 remaining Lascannons from my Devastator squads in the top level of the ruins could not draw a bead on the opposing Aggressors and missed their shots against the last Stormraven (even with re-rolls). The Grey Knights that came in this turn shot and charged the Conscripts, bringing their numbers down to single digits.
The game was more or less over by the end of my opponent's turn 3 as his Conscripts fell back, leaving the the halberd GKSS to be shot along with Draigo, leaving him with 3 wounds that Guilliman finished off on the charge. Celestine killed the Chapter Master before he got to swing and left me with 2 lascannons, a GK Librarian and a squad of 5 falchion-wielding GKSS on the table and a bare bones squad of 5 Scions in orbit which promptly got shot by the stormraven after they finally came in on my Turn 3.
Learning points:
1. Take note if an important enemy unit has entered the battlefield or ask your opponent if it is still in reserve.
2. Bring in aggressive reserves at the same time rather than let the opponent have the opportunity to deal with them piecemeal.
3. Could have started with Draigo in the back line as a counter charge unit once again
Game 3 - vs Heretic Astartes
Just when I thought I was finally facing some daemons in the tournament (had expected more; especially Horrors), I found out that my opponent only had a Slaaneshi daemon prince and Ahriman on a disc of Tzeentch. The mission was ITC's Secure and Control, and Spearhead Assault was the deployment type.
Unperturbed by there only being 2 daemon's in the opposing army for my smites, I won the roll to determine deployment zones but lost the roll-off to start first yet again (which was becoming a trend). This time however, I managed to seize the initiative (the third try that day) which started my good streak of rolls that lasted for the first half of the game (unfortunately for my opponent). My opponent, affectionately named Lord Renzus (who wrote the initial Index Chaos Impressions article and I'm looking forward to his updated version of it with the new Chaos Codex!), brought a list consisting of:
18 Khorne Berzerkers split into 3 squads of 8, 5 and 5 in
2 Chaos Rhinos
3 units of 10 Cultists (for objective grabbing I presume)
A unit of 10 Slaaneshi Nightlord Terminators with combi-plasmas
the aforementioned winged Nightlord Daemon Prince of Slaanesh
Ahriman on Disc
Dark Apostle and Exalted Champion of Khrone to go with the Berzerkers
A Nightlord Sorceror with jump pack/wings and
3 Slaaneshi Nightlord Obliterators
*a pic from the end of the game but I've amateurishly marked out where the Chaos starting positions were at the beginning
Playing from short table edge to short table edge and there not being and LOS blocking terrain in the centre of the table (only the 2 sides) put the game in my favour from the outset and it was exacerbated by my seizing the initiative. I dropped 2 squads of GKSS, Draigo and the GK Librarian near his Cultists that were set up on the objectives on turn 1 and killed/routed 2 squads with Smites and Stormbolter fire while the Devastators in the fire base took out a Rhino, forcing the two 5-man squads inside to disembark. My Conscripts pushed up from my deployment line to hold maelstrom objectives 1 and 2 while leaving a few men straggling behind to block an inevitable Nightlord Terminator drop.
Renzus' first turn had him advancing the remaining 8 Berzerkers from the wrecked Rhino (two squads of 4) toward the necron-looking radar/pylon that we agreed, would give a cover save to any unit touching the terrain. His Terminators dropped in a line in front of my Grey Knights and took both squads down as well as brought Draigo down to 3 wounds. Those combi-plasma Slaaneshi terminators are awesome with the stratagem that allows a unit with the mark of Slaanesh shoot twice! Especially with the re-roll to hit of 1s from the nearby Daemon Prince of Slaanesh. Unfortunately, Ahriman's attempt to remove Draigo's invulnerable save (which was 2++ from Sanctuary as the tournament was played the day before the FAQ came out) via the psychic power Death Hex was denied on a deny roll of 9. The Obliterators deep striked onto tthe hill (top left of the image) but could only kill 2 missile launcher-wielding marines from one of the Devastator Squads. The terminators tried to charge Draigo and the GK Librarian but failed their charge with a re-roll using a Command Point and the turn passed back to me.
On my turn 2, I called in the remaining 5-man GKSS team down from orbit within 9" of the daemon prince in the opponent's deployment zone but could not get either the smite nor the charge off (Aaaargh). The rest of the army poured everything they had into the Terminators (having seen the firepower they were capable of) and Obliterators. The "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" order given to the Conscripts on the hill managed to deal a few wounds too. The conscripts closer to the Terminators bravely charge in to soak their Overwatch fire for Draigo and the GK Librarian who managed to cause enough wounds for the remaining 3 members to be removed from play via battle shock.
Determined to end the threat of Lord Kaldor Draigo, Renzus disembarked his still 8-marine strong squad of Berzerkers from the remaining Rhino alongside their 2 attendant characters (the Dark Apostle and Exalted Champion) during his turn 2 and charged him and the Librarian. The daemon prince also charged the 5-man squad that dared to deep strike near him the turn before. The sheer number of attacks the Berzerkers put out alongside the re-roll auras from the accompanying characters laid the Chapter Master of the Grey Knights and the Librarian warlord low but the armour of the Grey Knights facing the daemon prince held as they only lost 2 models from the combat. The remaining Berzerkers from the small squads took out all but 4 of the Conscripts that had helped Draigo and the Librarian get into combat previously.
My turn 3 saw the remaining Berzerkers taken out by mass heavy weapons and small arms fire and that managed to close out the game as the characters could not get to grips with the fire base in time to be shot one by one and the Chaos army didn't have the numbers to score the maelstrom objectives from then on. My rolls evened out from turn 3 onward but by then, most of the damage (including seizing the initiative) had already been done. The game would have gone very differently had Renzus been able to advance his rhinos up the battlefield and pop their smoke launchers on his first turn.
All in all, it was a rewarding tournament with a lot of good learning experiences and a chance to test out the new Grey Knights and Space Marines in a fairly competitive environment. I could have played more decisively with my Grey Knights in Game 2 but other than that, I'm not sure if I would have made many other changes to the game play throughout. Some takeaways from my list and the armies that I faced:
Grey Knights hit fairly hard but are only T4 3+ save models at 21 points per model at the end of the day. They are fragile (feels like a lot of things have become more fragile this edition)
Slaaneshi firepower units are awesome in the new Codex
Every list currently needs to have a way to take out at least 30+ conscripts a turn in a tournament until they are adjusted appropriately
There might be room for mech lists in a meta where everyone starts to focus too much on killing horde.
The Guilliman/Celestine/double Stormraven/Conscript combo is definitely a tough nut to crack.
The first turn advantage has been brought up a number of times by various members/writers/organisers already and I shan't repeat it in detail here but it does bear some consideration.
It was heartening to see so many returning players (that had sat out the previous edition or two) and am looking forward to a slightly more balanced (arguable) edition of Warhammer 40k and to writing about it! If you have any feedback or see anything that has been missed out, please feel free to leave a comment below!
Cheers,
the BenCH