WH40k Tournament Wrap Up

On Saturday myself and a few other FC40kers attended the monthly tournament at Gamer's Sanctuary.   I was hesitant at first to go, but I am glad I was able to overcome my post holiday malaise and make it out for this one.   The points limit was set pretty high at 2250, and Forge World units were allowed.   I was looking forward to seeing what people could do with their lists to bring all their big boy toys models.   I had just played my Tau/Blood Angels in the UCON tournament, but I decided to just bring a pure Blood Angels list this time.    Pictures incoming...

Originally I just had an all mech force, but it just felt so 5th edition.   I decided to drop out some tanks and add some fun units.   I don't think it was the most competitive list I could have made, but I ended up having a fun time playing it.

2250 Blood Angels
HQ
Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor (Warlord)

Librarian (Force Staff, Shield of Sanguinius, Sanguine Sword)

EL
x5 Sanguinary Guard (Infernus Pistol, Power Fist, x2 Glaive swords, x2 Glaive axes)

x1 Sanguinary Priest (Jump Pack)

Tr
x9 Death Company (CCW+BP, x1 Thunder Hammer)
Land Raider (searchlight)

x10 Assault Marines (x2 Melta, PW+Melta Bomb)

x6 Assault Marines (Flamer, Melta Bomb)
Razorback (LasTLPlasma, searchlight)

x6 Assault Marines (Flamer, Melta Bomb)
Razorback (LasTLPlasma, searchlight)

x5 Scouts (Camo, x4 Sniper, x1 Missile Launcher)

FA
x5 Vanguard Vets (x1 Glaive Encarmine, x3 Melta Bombs)

Hvy
Stormraven (TLMM, TLPlasma Cannon, x4 Bloodstrike Missiles)

Stormraven (TLMM, TLLascannon, x4 Bloodstrike Missiles)

So lots of big point sinks, two Stormravens, a Landraider, etc.    I find myself almost always having to take Stormraven(s) now just to have some anti-flier capability.   Death Company have been really good to me lately, though I think I made a bit of a mistake and put too many in one unit.    With the Chaplain attached, they tended to overkill their charge targets and then get exposed to shooting counter attacks.

Game 1
Blood Angels vs Necrons (Scott T)
The Relic (Dawn of War Deployment, First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker)

My first game was against Scott T and his Necrons.   He commented to me that he was running a CVinton-inspired list, so I knew I was in for a hard fought battle.   From memory, he ran two Command Barges, two groups of Wraiths, three Annihilation barges, three groups of Immortals, 1 unit of warriors, three Night Scythes, two units of deathmarkes, and four crypteks with that annoying flamer weapon.   I castled up a bit in the corner to deny a flank, and waited for the pain train to arrive at my doorstep.   It didn't take long as Scott played aggressively and mobilized at me quickly.   My Death Company charged a group of wraiths and wiped them out, only to be exposed to the Deathmark /Cryptek combo and get annihilated in one turn of shooting.   My reserves showed up and did some return fire, but most of his vehicles just lost hull points and continued shooting me up.

By turn five, I was low on units, but I did have a VP lead (2-1 on first blood+warlord) and neither of us had any troops left to claim the relic.   Unfortunately for me, the game continued to turn six and I was tabled.   Good game, but ouch!  This list makes me miss the old scarab farm.   I have still yet to win against Necrons in sixth edition.   Maybe next time...

Game 2
Blood Angels vs Space Marines (Scott P)
The Scouring (Vanguard Deployment, First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker)

With the UM vs OSU game going in the background, it was time for another rivalry game.   In game two I played against Scott P and his Codex Marines.  The Scouring is starting to become one of my favorite of the book missions.   I like the variety of giving different values to objectives.   The gamed ended up with Scott having most of the higher value objectives in his deployment while I had the lower ones.

 
I pushed towards his deployment zone while he concentrated on taking out my light force defending my objectives.   I was glad I had a lot of reserves and my deep striking units and fliers had big roles in getting a win.   Neither of us lost our warlord, but I ended up getting three out of the six objectives for a victory (11-4 VP).

Game3
Blood Angels vs Blood Angels (Jeremy)
Crusade (Hammer and Anvil Deployment, First Blood, Warlord, Linebreaker)
 

For the third game, I played against Jeremy and his Blood Angels.   Jeremy brought his famous "Nipple Wing" with Dante, lots of Sanguinary Guard, some devastators, Sternguard, and a Stormraven.   I was pretty concerned about facing his all Plasma cannon devastators so I focused fire on them at first.   Jeremy charged out with Dante and a group of Sanguinary Guard to easily dispatch a 5 man assault group.   Fortunately, I was able to get a lot of reserves and managed to shoot up Dante's group pretty well.   After that, we got in a big scrum between my Death Company and his Sanguinary guard.

After a few turns of a multi-melee assault, my own Sanguinary Guard unit attacked and helped turn the tide.    After the big melee fight, I pushed forward into his deployment zone.    Jeremy got a bit unlucky with his reserve rolls, and his Stormraven didn't show up until after the game was pretty much decided.   It was good game, but I think we were both tired after a long day.

Anyway, I ended up going 2-1 on the day and ended up in fourth place out of ten players.   I did get lucky not having to face either Chaos Daemon players that showed up with beater lists.   Chaos Daemons are definitely a tough nut to crack.   Congrats to all the winners!

Screamers and Flamers rule the day