Reanimation Protocols Activated

While this game happened in May, I'm posting it now and incomplete. While I had finished writing it up, when I originally attempted to upload it there was an error that deleted half the post. That was quite a bit of work that was lost and it out me off posting other stuff for a while (as you can tell if you are regular reader). So, for the sake of completion here it is.

This week George and I scheduled a 1500point game. He wanted to try out large units of reanimating Warriors and had also remarked that he hadn't faced my Astra Militarum before. We built armies accordingly and squared off on Wednesday evening at Dark Star.

My Astra Militarum is an infantry-based force. I decided I wanted some Ultramarines to add some heavier firepower and come blazing to the rescue from the skies.

Imperial 1500 points   

Cadian Brigade Detachment     

HQ   

Company Commander, Warlord - Master of Command, Heirloom of Conquest - Kurov's Aquila

Company Commander, Heirloom of Conquest - Relic of Lost Cadia

Primaris Psyker, Heirloom of Conquest - The Deathmask of Olianius, Psykana - Psychic Maelstrom, Mental Fortitude

Troops   

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

Infantry Squad

Elites   

Platoon Commander

Ratlings

Ratlings

Fast Attack   

Scout Sentinel, Autocannon

Scout Sentinel, Autocannon

Scout Sentinel, Autocannon

Heavy Support   

Heavy Weapons Squad, Mortars

Heavy Weapons Squad, Mortars

Heavy Weapons Squad, Mortars

Ultramarines Outrider Detachment   

HQ  

Captain, Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Relic of the Chapter - The Sanctic Halo

Lieutenant in Phobos Armour

Fast Attack   

Inceptor Squad, Plasma Exterminators

Inceptor Squad, Plasma Exterminators

Suppressor Squad

Heavy Support   

Eliminator Squad

Operative Requisition Sanctioned   

1 Assassin

All the Command Points! The core of the army is obviously the Cadian Brigade. Infantry and Officers to do the heavy lifting, Mortars and Sentinels for covering fire and Ratlings to suppress characters. The Ultramarines are built to drop into the rescue turn 2, and the Eliminators are because the last time I tried them, George destroyed them first turn so I want to see what they do.  

I also brought one of each Assassin. This would allow me to look at George's army and decide which one to deploy. Obviously, the Culexus would be a poor choice and George says that most people he saw at the recent Dark Star tournament just ran Vindicares. Guess we shall see which I run.

Experimenting with large squads of Warriors, while also trying out the Monolith and the Doom Scythe, George's force looked intimidating. I wasn't sure I had sufficient firepower to tackle a Monolith. It could potentially cause me problems.

Reanimation Group Necron 1500 points   

Necron Battalion  

HQ  

Overlord

Overlord

Cryptek

Troops   

20 Necron Warriors

20 Necron Warriors

10 Immortals

Elites   

Triarch Stalker

Heavy Support

Monolith

Flier   

Doom Scythe   

A lot of bodies that can get back up and a lot of firepower to take out fragile Guardsman bodies. Not ideal, and flashlights versus a flier is not a great matchup. The Doom Scythe might have to be the Marine's responsibility.

The Game   

We set up the terrain and rolled for a mission; Disruptive Signals with Frontline Assault deployment. Both of us had quite a core of Troops, so Objectives were likely to be viciously fought over. His vehicles could give him the edge unless my Marines could take them down.

I was deploying first. I deployed the bulk of the Guard and put the Sentinels on my left flank. The Eliminators took advantage of a Bastion in the middle of the field and I prepared to set up the Ratlings after George's deployment. Being rather terrified of not being able to deal with the Monolith, I elected to not put the rest of the Marines in reserve but instead deployed them to hold my right flank. Finally, I requisitioned an Eversor. I believed I had enough Snipers to bully his characters and the Eversor could potentially make a mess of the Immortals if he can touch them in combat. So I put him in reserve.

George put a unit of Warriors on each flank and put his Warlord Overlord and the Cryptek behind a rock with the Warriors on his right. The Doom Scythe and Triarch Stalker went to the centre and then he did something unexpected. He deployed the Monolith in reserve and put the Immortals in the Monolith. This would delay the Monolith until at least turn 2 and the Immortals until at least turn 3. The Monolith having a large footprint and needing to be 12" away from my forces when it arrives would also inhibit where it could arrive. If I'd known it wasn't going to start on the table, I'd have risked doing the same with the Ultramarines.

I elected to go first and George failed to seize. I then deployed the Ratlings forward with sights set on the other Overlord and the Scout Sentinels moved up to support them.  

Round One   

I moved up and prepared to hammer the Warriors with what firepower I could get in range. My cards were a little lacklustre, so I ignored them for now. The key one I could score, Supremacy, was denied by George using the mission Stratagem. I did have Defend 3, which was close to George's lines. At the end of my Shooting Phase, I had killed 1 Warrior from the group on my left, and 16 on the right. His Warlord had Immortal Pride, however, so that group wasn't running. The Snipers failed to hurt the other Overlord too.

Georges turn started with him getting 13 of the 17 Warriors back via Reanimation Protocols. He killed the nearest squad of Inceptors for First Strike and killed enough of the Guard squad to deny me the Defend 3. Already it looked like I would have problems.

Round Two

As you can see, this is all that Blogger saved. I did win this game, probably due to George putting so much into Reserve.

New Ynnari 2019

If you are a Warhammer 40,000 player, you've surely seen this month's White Dwarf with the new Ynnari Index. There are a lot of changes to the army, which I will look at more in depth shortly. Having been challenged to a 1000 point game, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to start experimenting with them.

The new rules incentivise a melee-based force, with some heavy hitting firepower to trigger Strength from Death in the shooting phase.

Ynnari 1000 Points   

Reborn Harlequin Detachment  
  

HQ  

The Visarch, Warlord - Master of Death 

Troupe Master, Fusion Pistol, Power Sword, Relic - Hungering Blade, Exalted of Ynnead - Walker of Many Paths

Troops   

Troupe, 5 Players

Troupe, 5 Players

Troupe, 5 Players

Elites

Death Jester, Artefacts of Death - Mirrorgaze

   

Harlequins Fortification Network  

Fortification   

Webway Gate

Iyanden Super-Heavy Auxilliary Detachment  

Lord of War  

Wraithknight, Suncannon, Scattershield, 2 Starcannon

The Reborn Harlequins are the assault core. Designed to get to combat quickly and get +1 to hit via Strength from Death, their 4 attacks each can put in a lot of work. Add re-rolls from the Visarch and the Troupe Master and they should mince units.

The Wraithknight's job was to take out a small unit each shooting phase, triggering Strength from Death for the Ynnari. 

The Webway Gate both gives the Wraithknight protection and turns the whole thing into a "Distraction Carnifex", pulling firepower away from my fragile troops. 

That was the plan. A quick test to see if Strength from Death is worth the effort and try out some of the Stratagems.

My usual Wednesday opponent, George, is a Necron player. He built his force to try out some more mobile units for his larger tournament force. He feels that many of his opponents control the board, leaving him struggling to score points.

Mobile Necrons 1000 points   

Necron Outrider Detachment  

HQ

Destroyer Lord

Fast Attack   

6 Destroyers

6 Wraiths

9 Tomb Blades

High toughness, multiple wound models with mobility. This looked like it was going to b my worst nightmare. It would probably take my full force a combined shooting and assault phase to kill a unit, so Strength from Death was never going to trigger.

The Game   

We set up terrain and rolled for a mission; Strategic Gamble, with Dawn of War deployment. With such small forces, scoring cards was going to be interesting but both forces we also quite mobile. I felt George had the edge with much more access to shooting. The Necrons deployed first and elected to go first, with me failing to seize. George also used a Stratagem to put the Destroyers in Reserve.

Round One   

The Tomb Blade's shooting and the Wraith's assault did a bunch of wounds to the Webway Gate but failed to kill it. On my turn, I used a Stratagem to deploy the Wraithknight and he attacked the Tomb Blades while the Ynnari assaulted the Wraiths. The Wraithknight did very little damage but the Harlequins kill all but 2 of the Wraiths. 

Amazingly, neither force had scored First Strike, although George got a slight lead on cards.

Round Two  

The Tomb Blades and Wraiths fell back, and the Destroyers arrived. The Tomb Blades destroyed one unit of Harlequins, the Destroyers deployed their Stratagem and obliterated the Wraithknight and then the Wraiths charged the Visarch, with my Troupe Leader Heroicly Intervening. The Visarch lost a couple of wounds, but the combination of characters finished the Wraiths off. Killing the Wraiths was good but I could tell the loss of the Wraithknight was going to cost me.

My return punch had me gamble into Supremacy, so I sent the Troupes and the Death Jester to 3 different Objectives. Meanwhile, the Visarch charged the Tomb Blades and the Troupe Leader charged the Destroyer Lord. Amazingly, the Destroyer Lord fell, the Mortal Wounds from the Hungering Blade being the nail in his coffin. The Visarch killed enough Tomb Blades that they failed their Morale test. I also used the Souls of the Strongest Stratagem upon the Destroyer Lord's death to have Strength from Death be permanently turned on.

This amazing sequence of events allowed me to get ahead on points and left George with only his Destroyers. 

Round Three    

Sudden Death doesn't give you the automatic win in this mission, so George needed to play for points. The Destroyers we able to get to a Defend Objective and still have the range to kill the nearest Troupe. 

My turn was focused on scoring points, I was unable to reach the Destroyers in one turn and feared their firepower. I did have to send the Death Jester out on a limb to reach one Objective, using Fire and Fade to gain enough movement to reach it, but risking the Destroyers moving to get a line of fire on him.

Round Four  

The Destroyers moved to get as many guns pointed at the Jester as possible, and four of their number could see him. The Mirrorgaze put in a lot of work, and only 4 hits wounded. I checked his Wounds (5, I wasn't expecting to see a number that high) and then proceeded to make all 4 saves! That was probably the final turning point, as it stopped George from getting points that turn and allowed me to score some more in my turn.

Rounds Five and Six   

George killed the final Troupe, but I was able to run ahead on points. The dice dictated that turn 6 was the final turn.

The game ended with victory to the Ynnari, 18 - 12.

Aftermath   

The game was brutal in the early turns and then became cat and mouse in the later turns. Georges force was small, but each unit is difficult to kill in one phase, stopping a lot of the Ynnari power. Neither force had many models/units so each loss would hurt.

I honestly thought the game was over when the Wraithknight fell. Only passing 1 save didn't help my morale. It was a statistically unlikely set of shooting, but entirely possible with the Destroyer Stratagem re-rolling hits and wounds. So when the two characters put in work the very next turn, it gave me the opening I needed. It helped that the Destroyers were the other side of the battlefield at this point.

The victory came down to Playing the Mission. You can't win games if you get distracted by trying to kill the opponent's force or dismayed by losing a key unit. You should always keep the mission's victory condition in mind and act accordingly.

I will try some more games with the Ynnari, I really want to get some more use out of the melee-centric parts of the Aeldari. I should probably get some Wyches to help.....

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My Regionals Experience

A large group of us went to the Regionals at Kirton Games, 15 in total. It was quite a sight seeing us with team polo shirts on amongst a crowd of 102 players. Credit to James Fox and all the Kirton staff for running a smooth event, with plenty of food available and even a Fish and Chips run for everyone.

My List

• Colonel Vessery, Ruthlessness, TIE/D, Tractor Beam
• Countess Ryad, Push the Limit, TIE/x7, Twin Ion Engine MK 2
• Baron of the Empire, Push the Limit, TIE/v1, Autothrusters

Comes in at 100 points. With Pilot Skills of 4,5 and 6; an initiative bid isn't needed. It took me weeks to find a decent wingman for the Defenders, but the Thursday before the event I settled on the Baron of the Empire in the TIE Adv. Prototype. Mobile, and grants a target lock for Vessery, he ended up being a fantastic addition. Playing the key role of blocker often, I was never disappointed with his performance. I just wish he had 3 attack dice.

My Result

I came 70th. Not great, though the result of going 3-3, as I wanted to at least Top 64 to get a Zuckuss. It is better than my warm-up result though, as although I went 50/50 in both events, none of my games were zero point losses this time around.

Round 1

Palp Aces. I approached this wrong and was unable to K-Turn over the shuttle. My opponent burnt Ryad down in the first couple of turns. I made sure I was able to get half points for the shuttle once it was clear I probably couldn't pull the game back.
Loss - consider the initial approach vector carefully next time. Possibly bank the turn before.

Round 2

Decimator and Rexlar Brath. I burnt the Decimator pretty quick and was able to carefully keep Rexlar from Ioning Ryad.
Win - I made a couple of early mistakes with Ryad but managed to recover.

Round 3

Vader, Vynder, Omega Leader. A long game with lots of positional manoeuvring. Two bumps for Vader helped. The key point was the opponent isolating Omega, allowing me to send my squad after him and then being free of the other two for a couple of turns.
Win - long game though. The important kills were in the final round after time had been called.

Round 4

Miranda and Dash. A long game as well. Managed to trap and burn down Miranda, but struggled to catch Dash.
Win - came down to the final shot of the game giving me half points for Dash, and winning by 9 points.

Round 5

Miranda and Dash. A slightly different build, and the winner of the 2016 Dark Star store championships. He kept Miranda out of as many arcs as possible, so Vessery never got a shot off. Unfortunately, in doing so he flew her too close to the edge, allowing me to bump her off the map. That was my only kill.
Loss - I was completely outflown. My green dice were mostly above average though.

Round 6

Hera and Ezra. For some reason, I struggle against Ghost lists. I think it's because they have a variety of builds with different ways of tackling each.
Loss - A key turn of bad dice (with a target lock) meant I killed Ezra later than I wanted. Killing Ezra may not have turned the game into a win, but may have given me time to get half points on Hera.


My biggest failing was finalizing the list at such a late point, which minimized my practice with it. I'm going to keep the list built for a while and continue to practice with it. Not sure when my next event will be, depends if there is any travelling to Store Championships. I'm Judging at the System Open this week, Euros in June and Marshalling the Plymouth Store Championships.

Star Wars the Card Game - not dead yet

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/1/10/promise-of-power-1/

This recent article on the Fantasy Flight Games site said that Promise of Power is the final release for the Star Wars card game.

"Promise of Power is the final Force Pack of the Alliances cycle, marking the climactic conclusion of the cycle. With ten new objective sets (two copies each of five distinct sets), this Force Pack continues to reward players for melding affiliations together in a single deck. Promise of Power also introduces plenty of characters from Star Wars Rebels, bringing a new version of Ezra Bridger, Cikatro Vizago, and more Inquisitors into the game.
In addition to being the final Force Pack of the Alliances cycle, Promise of Power marks the completion of Star Wars: The Card Game. Over the past five years, Star Wars: The Card Game has seen five deluxe expansions and six cycles of Force Packs, ranging from the Battle of Hoth, through the pilots of the Rogue Squadron cycle, the forest battles of the Endor cycle, and the most recent changes of the Opposition and Alliances cycle. With the conclusion of the Alliances cycle, the game will be complete, and the Star Wars World Championships in May will be the final Organized Play World Championship for the game"

There isn't much I want to say on the end of the game, as I feel this video from the Fully Operational YouTube channel says it better (hosted by the 2017 UK Nationals runner-up)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V80euCwSWc8

However, as long as we have a player base in Plymouth, I intend on continuing to run events. Now it's a "complete" game, there won't be surprise swings in the card pool. It exists as a game that hadn't reached a consensus best deck. I feel this is due to a combination of having to build/play both a Light Side and a Dark Side deck, and also to the unique Pod building system which stops you just making your deck 100% the best cards. I hope we get much more play, especially as players finish off their sets.

So, with that being said, our most recent event was this past Saturday. I'm going to talk about the decks I played.

The Dark Side - Death Star Assembly

Let's start with the weaker deck.

• Imperial Navy affiliation
• 2 x Technological Terror
• 2 x Death and Despayre
• 2 x Deploy the Fleet
• 2 x Victory or Death
• 1 x Repair and Refurbish
• 1 x Moon Blockade

I consider it weaker simply as there some sub-optimal choices in the deck. This is due to me currently having several decks built, and the pods I'd potentially want being in other decks. It's built to a simple theme. Construct the Death Star and smash the Rebellion from the galaxy.

Objectives - Four of my sets produce 2 resources, and a further two can be damaged to reduce the cost of Capital Ships. Repair and Refurbish helps mitigate that damage and slow down the enemy assault. Victory or Death keeps opposing units from controlling the Force, as this deck wants to be the aggressor. Finally, Moon Blockade brings us the Executor.

Units - Thirty of the cards are Units, of which eleven are Resource generators. We want the heavy hitters coming down as soon as possible, although we risk flooding on resources occasionally. There is a fair spread of Edge enabled icons amongst them, mostly Tactics, for when they are forced to join the fight. The Death Star Engineer is crucial, as it's action helps me stop the opponent from locking down my ships with their Tactics.
Five of the units are Officers. They are mostly chuds, although sometimes I have the spare Resources for the Imperial Officer to speed up the Dial, and Chiraneau's ability to shut down the text on opposing Objectives can come up clutch.
Twelve Star Destroyers. No Tactics here, just plenty of Blast and Gun to smash through the opponent's defences and Objectives. Thuderflare does contribute some healing to my side while moving that damage over to the opponent, and the Devastator helps increase the Dial. The Executor can finish off a damaged Objective, which is usually a surprise to the opponent.
Finally, two copies of the Death Star itself. If that manages to hit the table, it's usually game over during that turn or the next.

Enhancements - Eleven Enhancements, eight of which generate Resources. Six Control Rooms can lead to problems if they start clogging up the hand, but they can always be used to bluff in Edge battles.

Events - Three Events. One Jamming Protocol, which can stop a key Event, and two Admiral's Orders. Reducing the cost of a Capital Ship by 2 often lets me deploy two in a turn, and start the offence.

Fate  - Six Fate cards. None of them are particularly spectacular but included because they are in the Pods. Heat of Battle is always a nice surprise though, and Echoes is always solid.


The deck itself attempts to play in a similar fashion to a Ramp strategy in Magic. Make cards that generate Resources, to make large attackers, to smash the opponent's Objectives. You want to commit something to the Force in the first turn, to make the opponent work for it, but otherwise, you want to be on the attack as much as possible. Accelerating the turning of the Dial via Objective destruction, plus the reaction of the Devastator and Imperial Officer close the game out quickly.

It can start to falter if the opponent seizes the initiative as it lacks most, if not all, of the traditional control elements you see from Imperial Navy. You also lose if you draw all the Resources and none of the Star Destroyers, as that gives your opponent time to put you on the back foot. It's a blast to play though, and nothing quite feels like counting out 12 Resources to deploy the Death Star, and then reading it's text to your opponent.

On the day, across the three rounds, it flooded in the first round against Jedi, pulled off a close win against a Smugglers deck featuring Blockade Runner rush and finally managed to keep a Jedi deck on the back foot long enough to deploy the Death Star as a finisher.

The Light Side - Ewok Swarm

This deck has been both fun, and surprisingly strong.

• Jedi Affiliation
• 2 x Sacrifice at Endor
• 2 x Native Blessings
• 1 x Lost in the Forest
• 2 x Warriors of the Forest
• 1 x Tribe of the Trees
• 1 x Courage of the Tribes
• 1 x Tribal Support

I built it originally as a joke because one of the local players HATES Ewoks. Then it started winning games in record time, the joke became serious. The recent release of Native Blessings has solidified the deck in my opinion.

Objectives - All were chosen to maximise the amount of Ewoks in the deck. However, Tribe of the Trees shuts down popular cards like Force Choke. The number of times I had to remind opponents that they couldn't target the Ewoks was quite funny. The real star is Warriors of the Forest though, as the additional Edge enabled Blast icons helps the swarm tear through Objectives.

Units - Twenty-six units. One C-3PO and the rest are Ewoks. Ambushers are cheap. Hunters draw cards. Allys help win Edge battles. Scouts are the key though, stopping the opponents best defender from joining the Engagement. Especially good in the early turns. Very key to taking out an Objective on the first turn. Hordes provide muscle, and the named Ewoks give various utility.

Enhancements - Seven Enhancements. Most are simply Edge fodder, as if Warriors of the Forest is out, you want to have those Icons active. Forest Awareness can give a key Ewok Elite though, and Bright Tree Village makes spare Ewoks better in the Edge stack.

Events - Ten Events. All have their uses, although again you shouldn't be afraid to just pitch them to win Edge battles. Feast of Honor is the STAR card though. It lets you flood the board with Ewoks in one turn. If the opponent makes one Main character to defend in their first turn, and you have Warriors of the Forest out, you can use this to deploy 4 Ewoks in your first turn. If one of them is a Scout, then your opponent can't defend and you destroy the Objective of your choice turn one. It's very easy to follow this up with a Horde on the second turn too.

Missions - Two Missions. Its two copies of Repel the Invaders, which is situational. I rarely want to play this as a mission, as there are rarely good targets for its Reaction, assuming you can get through, although it doesn't generate any Resources. So, like many of the non-Ewok cards, it's home is the Edge Stack.

Fate - Five Fate cards. Two copies of Secret Objective,  to keep the opponent on their toes. I can see a scenario where the ability is good, but mostly it has 3 Force pips. Three copies of Battle of Endor should be 4 Force pip cards, as all the Objectives have the Endor trait.

It's a swarm deck. Fill the board with Ewoks, send them all at one Objective, hopefully denying some defence, destroy it and repeat until 3 are destroyed. It plays fast, doesn't care about defending and doesn't care about the Force. It can, with the right cards, destroy 1 Objective a turn across its first three turns leading to a very fast win.

If your opponent gets a good amount of defenders out quickly, or you stumble, then the game can become unwinnable just as quickly. Force Storm is not your friend. Play smart and you can recover from the board wipe though. It's a struggle, but always play it out. You never know how you might overwhelm them, as Force Storm isn't cheap to use.

On the day, in the first round I managed the 3 turn kill, in the second round I faltered and the opponent managed to stabilise before I could get the third Objective. In the third round, the quick kill happened again. 4 Ewoks and a Feast of Honor is the best possible start.

It was a four-player event, and I came second due to tiebreakers. Everyone had fun, and we will keep playing. It's love of Star Wars that unites us as players, and since the game is good we will play long past the official end of its lifespan.

X Wing Store Championships 2017

Today is our X-Wing Store Championships. 18 players registered, but due to last-minute cancellations, only 15 entered. Here is the during/after action report.

The Players

So, we had 15 players at the event. Of those, 8 were local/regular players. 3 were returning after last years Store Champs, and the rest were new to my events. That's quite a good mix, though obviously, I'm hoping one of our regulars takes the prize. One of them, Matt Vicary has already won a Champ title this season. He's hoping to make it a second, although the Bye at Regionals passes down if he does so. Surprisingly, we have managed an even mix of faction, with 5 players of each.

The Lists

Scum and Villainy

• Asajj Ventress, Palob Godalhi and Manaroo (Graham Ebsworth)
• Dengar and Zuckuss (Jack West)
• Dengar, Fenn Rau and Inaldra (Tim Greenaway)
• Bossk and Tel Trevura (Shaun Rich)
• Ketsu Onyo and Asajj Ventress (Sean O'Neil)

Rebellion/Resistance

• Ahsoka Tano, Captain Nym and Poe Dameron (Sam Crosby)
• Bandit Squadron Pilot and 4 x Rookie Pilot (Richard Greenaway)
• Wullffwarro, Biggs Darklighter, Captain Rex and Gray Squadron Pilot (Simon Greenaway)
• Miranda Doni, Biggs Darklighter and Lowhhrick (Paul Cadwell)
• Han Solo and Poe Dameron (Matt Coles)

Imperial/First Order

• Quickdraw, Backdraft and 2 x Academy Pilot (Mat Vicary)
• Whisper and 2 x Shadow Squadron Pilot (Nick Turner)
• Countess Ryad, Darth Vader, Dark Curse and Academy Pilot (Marty Vicary)
• The Inquisitor, Colonel Vessery and Omega Leader (Jon Vicary)
• Quickdraw, Backdraft and Colonel Vessery (Ian Atrill)

No copycat lists. No pilot appearing in more than 2 lists. A very diverse set of squads. I'll do a later post featuring some of the details on the lists. It's impressive to see such diversity at a Store Champs event, especially so close to UK Nationals.

Top 4

 These are the lists and players that made the top cut

• Dengar, Fenn Rau and Inaldra (Tim Greenaway)
• Bandit Squadron Pilot and 4 x Rookie Pilot (Richard Greenaway)
• Dengar and Zuckuss (Jack West)
• Miranda Doni, Biggs Darklighter and Lowhhrick (Paul Cadwell)

Two Scum, two Rebel. The highest Imperial list came 5th, so it's not too bad. Of course, father and son get paired against each other in the semi final. Interestingly, only Dengar is in both matches.

Final

These two made it to the final

• Bandit Squadron Pilot and 4 x Rookie Pilot (Richard Greenaway)
• Miranda Doni, Biggs Darklighter and Lowhhrick (Paul Cadwell)

An all Rebel final. It's really interesting to see the list with 4 X-Wings do so well. Shame he had to knock out the 12-year-old in the semis. Tim is a really good player, and will presumably only get better with age and time.

The final has been a textbook in blocking a ship to take it apart with the rest of your force. First Biggs, then Lowhhrick fell. Miranda is starting to clean up though.

The X-Wing swarm won!

 In a game where the humble X-Wing is considered bad, to see a group of them with Rookie Pilots win is really something. Watching him fly in the final, he is really practised with those ships and knows exactly what he wants to get out of them.

Congratulations Richard, and good luck at Nationals.

The Results Are In

Belated posting, been busy with work and life. Let's get things back on track.

This past Sunday I held my third 40K Tournament. It did well, we got 12 players. The scenario was  Maelstrom of War: Tactical Escalation. Here are the results;

1. Jack Lambourne, Tzeentch Daemons. 3 wins, 46 points
2. Ian Atrill, Orks. 3 wins, 32 points
3. Mike Pooley, Necrons. 2 wins, 1 loss, 30 points
4. David Newby, Sisters of Battle. 2 wins, 1 loss, 26 points
5. Charlie Bennett, Ynnari. 2 wins, 1 loss, 25 points
6. Ron Gargett, Alpha Legion. 1 win, 1 loss, 1 draw, 17 points
7. Alfie Bennett, Homunculus Covens. 1 win, 2 losses, 34 points
8. Chris Tucker, Necrons. 1 win, 2 losses, 20 points
9. Josh, Space Wolves. 1 win, 2 losses, 26 points
10. Macaulay Uniack, Raven Guard. 1 win, 2 losses, 7 points
11. Les Harvey, Dark Angels. 2 losses, 1 draw, 19 points
12. Kyle Clements, Blood Angels. 3 losses, 27 points

There is a nice spread of armies, with only one repetition. Which is the pattern so far. All three events have had a duplicate faction. Interestingly they have been a different faction and different players each time.

Jack's Daemons have won back to back events. I believe part of this is there ability to swarm the table via Summoning and rapidly overwhelm opponents. Especially as they usually start the game outnumbering them. It's something a lot of forces can't deal with unless they are set up to deal with it, which may cost them against others. It was possibly a key to the success of the Orks as well. Mobs of boyz set up in trucks, an army of large-ish, fast moving units.

End of May sees a repeat of this event, while we await 8th Editions release and the discussion into how to move forward with these events once that has happened.

Thanks to everyone that came, I hope that they all enjoyed it and I'll be sending out the survey shortly

Second 40k Starter Event Report

I'm typing this up during the event, so it's probably going to be a little disjointed.

We had 10 players again, so maximum turn out. Some different players and some players playing different armies. Only one repetition, and both of those are different styles.

• Khorne Daemonkin, mono-daemons with Flesh Hounds, Bloodletters and a Skullcannon
• Blood Angels infantry, with Terminator support
• Blood Angels, 4 Dreadnoughts with some infantry support
• Sisters of Battle, with Saint Celestine and 2 Exorcists
• Tzeentch Daemons, Flamers galore
• Skitarii, Rangers and a Dunecrawler
• World Eaters, Berzerkers and Raptors
• Raven Guard, Shrike leading Assault Marines, Scouts and Sternguard
• Crimson Slaughter with a Vindicator
• Saim-Hann Elder, with Wraithguard in a Wave Serpent.

As I type this, round one is coming near to an end. Everyone is playing the mission, no-one has come here just to try and table people. It's part of the intent of the event. I've limited the guest list to ensure a good atmosphere. Some players aren't great at facing newer players and that rapidly turns things toxic. That then leads to players not wanting to return to future events or even losing interest in the game. Definitely something I want to avoid.

Second round has led to an interesting match up. The Blood Angels players are facing off, with the more experienced one giving advice to the newer player. The latter played Harlequins last time and recently obtained the Blood Angels army. I'm hoping that he gets some good advice.

I'm considering asking at the end if any of the players want me to feature their army on the blog. It'll be interesting to hear the whys behind some of the builds and their intended tactics, alongside how they felt the games went.

Via summoning, the Tzeentch army managed to practically table the World Eaters. Far too many Flamer templates and not enough successful saves.

Final round I was unable to get pictures because a player dropped. This meant I got to play a match! I'll talk about the list I'm trialling in a future post. I won on behalf of the player that went, but as is my custom the player I beat got the win as if he faced the bye.

Everyone seemed happy with the event, the winner played the Tzeentch Daemon list, facing off against the Sisters of Battle in the final round. I've sent out the same questionnaire as last time, and nearly had a full set of responses already. I'm really enjoying running these, and I'm looking forward to the next one where we pump up the points, lift some restrictions and move onto Maelstrom missions,

Second 40K Starter Event

I'm currently prepping for this weekend's event. I thought I'd share the battlefield with you all. The more observant among readers will be able to plan their tactics based on this, but that's the advantage of recon ;)

The Red Cross is The Relic. The key objective for the mission. As per the mission rules, it starts in the dead centre of the field. Players will be fighting to capture and control this, moving it away from their opponent as needed.

The Black Rectangles are the Deployment Zones. Not much to say here, the Players set up their armies in these, one in the top, one in the bottom. Units with Scout will shoot forward from these. Units with Infiltrate will want to deploy outside of these. Units with Outflank will come on from the sides.

The Blue Shapes are Line of Sight Blocking Terrain. These serve to break up the lines of fire and give models/units places to hide. If you can be partially seen past these, they will be worth a 3+ Cover Save.

The Grey Ovals are Area Terrain. The features of these will block some lines of sight, but mostly will grant cover to models in their marked area. They will gain a 5+ Cover Save.

The Grey Rectangles are Ruins. This offer vantage points for shooting units, as well as cover to models behind their walls. They will have a 4+ Cover Save.


This will be the set up on Sunday, and after players have tried it out may well be the set up for the next few events. Looking at upping the points and removing some of the restrictions for April's event.

Next time; A summary of the Event itself.

40K Starter Tournament - Feedback

Since I'm running short of time to make one more post before the end of the week (this is being drafted on Sunday morning) and Games Workshop have posted an FAQ about the Fracture of Biel-Tan, I'm gonna hold off on discussing the Aeldari. There is a lot to talk about with that faction, so it's worth sitting down and planning what I want to say.

In the meantime, I sent out a survey to the players that attended the 40K Starter Tournament. I'll instead use this post to discuss the results and how they affect things going forward.

How satisfied were you with the event?

This was a Linear Scale question rated 1 to 5, with 1 being "Not very" and 5 being "Very much". I'm happy to see that the results were thirty percent 4 and seventy percent 5. This sets a definite goal of increasing the 5 to one hundred percent, while setting a standard to not slip below for future events.

How did you feel about the amount of scenery on the tables?

This was a Multiple Choice question (most of them were). Three simple options too, "Not enough", "The correct amount" and "Too much". This was one that concerned me, as I was trying to get the tables to have a similar layout utilising the available scenery. Also, when choosing terrain, I'm never sure if I've placed too little or too much. I'm glad to see in this case that the result was one hundred percent "The correct amount".

 How did you feel about the amount of Line-Of-Sight Blocking scenery?

This was a Multiple Choice question. The result here is interesting. No player said there was too much, nor too little. Ninety percent of the players felt that there was enough of it and that the placement on the battlefield was fine. Ten percent (one player), however, felt that while there was enough, he wasn't happy with the placement. It would be interesting to chat to that player and ask for more information on his concerns. It maybe that he started on the same side of the battlefield each game, and would have had a different opinion from the other side of the table. It may even have been something army specific. It's something to bear in mind for future events.

How did you feel about the total points value of the event?

This was a Multiple Choice question. Eighty percent of people were happy with the event being 1000 points. This allowed for a 2 hour round time and was chosen in case some of the players only had a small collection. Twenty percent were not happy, opting for larger games so they can experiment with units that wouldn't fit in the points limit. I whole-heartily agree with those two. While the limit was great for the event, it's frustrating not being able to play some of your stuff. There are Formations and Detachments that don't fit within that limit, and models/units that seem like too much of a gamble when they are between a third and half of your points. The good news is I intend to experiment with the points limits for future events, and have appropriate missions for those limits.

What points value would you like for future events?

This was a Multiple Choice question. I put forth a variety of points values, from 500 to 1850. One player wants to stay at 1000, one wants to shift to 1250, two want to go all the way to 1850 and the rest want to settle at 1500. This says to me that the players don't want games of less than 1000 points, which as I said above I agree with. 1850 is nice as it's in line with a lot of competitive events, but requires larger tables and more time. I will look to the feasibility of doing that  in the summer, however it would require a 2 day event and more tables and terrain at the venue. 1500 is probably the largest I'd want to see on a 4x4 table anyway, so it's something to build up to.

How did you feel about the build restrictions? (can pick more than one)

This was a Check Box question. None of the players thought there were too many or too few restrictions and all checked some variation of saying they were fine, most saying that they were fine for the points allowance. As we increase in points, restrictions can be lifted. Which brings us neatly on to the next question.

If the points went up, what would you want to see allowed? (can pick more than one)

Another Check Box question. I'll address each option in turn;

Fortifications - 5 people want these. They weren't actually restricted in the event. My guess here is that players aren't using them because they aren't in most Codexes. I'm yet to pick up the book with their rules in myself, so I shall do so soon and have a peruse. Maybe this will spur people to have a look into the available options.

Allies (Battle Brothers only) - 5 people want this. On the one had, I see little harm in this if that's how people want to play. Plus most of the players only have one army. On the other hand, there can be powerful combos within the Battle Brother armies. This is one to consider for future events. I don't want to encourage things like Wolf-Stars, but I don't want to inhibit the guy who wants to add Daemons to their Chaos Space Marine army.

Allies (Any) - 2 people want this. This one I'm more dubious about. Allies of Convenience may be okay, as that would allow armies like Genestealer Cult/Tyranids. On the other hand, Come the Apocalypse probably shouldn't be allowed as there is little fluff reason for such an army at these events other than looking for the best combo. This is something I'll discuss with the players, but I personally would prefer flavourful armies.

Fliers - 8 people want these. I'm assuming/hoping that people assumed that this included Flying Monstrous Creatures. My personal take; Fliers are fine in games over 1000 points. At 1k or less, a Flier can dominate a game, and if you dedicate points to dealing with them and your opponent doesn't have any those points can be a drag on your army. So I'm happy for this restriction to lift as we increase the points. I imagine most people saying yes to this either have or are about to purchase models that this restriction stops.

Lords of War - 5 people want these. This is a restriction that annoys me, which is a topic for another day. However, much like Fliers, I feel these are fine at higher point games. Probably still a good idea to limit them to 1 in a 1500 point game though. These units can dominate a battlefield. It'll be interesting to see how people deal with them/field them if this is lifted.

Certainly a group of things to look at for unrestricting. The next event is a simple repeat of this one, so I've got some time before I have to consider what points/restrictions for another event.

Do you think the event should allow Forge World rules?

This was a Multiple Choice question. This was an interesting one. I didn't restrict them for the event, but one of the players questioned me about it beforehand as they wanted to use one. The question itself got a 50/50 split. Which echoes my feelings on the matter. It feels like Forge World models are either over-pointed fluff units or under-pointed powerhouses. I understand that that's subjective, and not coming from having seen all the rules for all the units. Still, I'm just a bit wary about blanket allowing these. Possibly the best route is to get players to okay Units with me first, like Chris did.

That's the feedback. The comments were all short sentences saying people enjoyed the event. It's encouraging to see the first event do well in the players eyes, as well as get an idea of what path they want the events to take. There is little point in me making changes that the players don't want. After the next one I'll send out another questionnaire, see if opinions have changed and maybe get a fresh perspective if other people attend.

Next post should be about the Aeldari. I may then follow that one with my Rant about Lords of War in current 40k.

40k Starter Tournament Part 2 - Report

40K Starter Tournament

The day started out with me getting to Dark Star and setting up the tables. During this process the players started arriving. I aimed to get a mix of area and line of sight blocking terrain and some ruins to give vantage points. I also aimed to get each table as similar as possible, so that which table you game happened on wasn't a factor in the result of the game. I placed markers out for the Relics, X-Men poker chips. These were not only marked in such a way that made returning them to the centre between games easy, but they fit under that standard 25 and 32mm base sizes.

The Players

We had 10 players in total.

Alfie Bennet, playing a Farsight Enclaves Tau list, featuring deep striking Battlesuits and a Ghostkeel.

Charlie Bennet, playing Dark Eldar with Ravager and Talos support.

Gareth Curl, playing Skitarii with a Dunecrawler and a Sydonian Dragoon.

Kyle Clements, playing Harlequins following Ynnead and accompanied by both Yvraine and the Visarch.

Ron Gargett, playing World Eaters. Led by Kharn himself, the army was a solid wall of Berzerkers.

Sam Hough, also playing World Eaters. Kharn led this army as well, but had brought a pair of Chaos Spawn along as well.

David Newby, playing Adeptus Sororitas. His Battle Sisters were led by Canoness Veridyan and featuring two Exorcist tanks.

Mike Pooley, playing Necrons. His lord was mounted on a Command Barge and he had the Reclamation Legion and a Canoptek Harvest.

Ben Tucker, playing Saim-Hann Eldar following Ynnead. His army was Jetbikes, backed up by Vyper Jetbikes, led by guys on Jetbikes and a Fire Prism.

Chris Tucker, playing Blood Angels, with some bikes, 2 Drop Pods and a scout Land Raider variant.

Round One

Pairings
Kyle vs Charlie
Hough vs Ben
Pooley vs Gareth
Alfie vs Chris
Ron vs Newby

The event started fine. Everyone had become well versed with the mission objective in the lead up, so there were few opening questions.
Highlights included Gareth's Dragoon charging and killing Pooley's Warlord, Kyle's Death Jester shooting down a Raider and Newby's Exorcists killing Kharn using the Precision Strike from Veridyan. All in their respective first turns. Ron managed a late game comeback via Dark Apotheisis, which gave him a Daemon Prince that Newby couldn't deal with.

Winners 
Kyle
Ben
Pooley
Alfie
Ron

Round Two

Pairings
Ben vs Pooley
Alfie vs Ron
Gareth vs Newby
Hough vs Kyle
Chris vs Charlie

Highlights from this round included the massacre of the Harlequins by Hough's World Eaters and  Bens' Eldar slaughtering the Necron Wraiths but not much else in the army. After this round, we had a short lunch break.

Winners
Pooley
Alfie
Newby
Hough
Chris

Round Three

Pairings
Alfie vs Pooley
Chris vs Ben
Hough vs Newby
Kyle vs Ron
Charlie vs Gareth

This round's highlights included the Tau/Necron final, the brotherly grudge match, Kyle facing a second World Eater army and Newby once again facing the surprise Daemon Prince in the late game.

Winners
Pooley
Ben
Hough
Ron
Charlie

Final Standings

9th - Gareth, Skitarii
8th - Kyle, Aeldari (Harlequins/Ynnari)
7th - Charlie, Dark Eldar
6th - Newby, Adeptus Sororitas
6th - Chris, Blood Angels
5th - Ron, Chaos Space Marines (World Eaters)
4th - Hough, Chaos Space Marines (World Eaters)
3rd - Alfie, Tau (Farsight Enclave)
2nd - Ben, Aeldari (Craftworld Eldar/Ynnari)
1st - Pooley, Necrons
(two players at 6th due to a tie on victory points)

None of the games went over the time limit of 2 hours. One game reached the limit in round one, but after finishing the second player's turn it was pretty easy to call based on how much they had left.  Feedback so far has been good and I'm currently crafting a questionnaire so I can improve future events. There will be an identical follow up event at the end of March and then hopefully I will run an event for these guys every month.


Next post should hopefully be this weekend and be about the Aeldari and their newfound Strength From Death

40k Starter Tournament Part 1 - Discussion

Well, due to mild illness and a lot of business, I've fallen behind on posting. Missing two weeks of my attempt at a post a week all year. That said, the last few posts have been long. To make up for the short fall, I will do a long, double post about the 40k starter tournament, and then follow up with a piece on the new Aeldari/Ynnead stuff. Hopefully I can get that all done this week
40K Starter Tournament

Why was this happening?

I've been running tournaments for 10 years as of this year. I've been playing in events for even longer. I've seen a lot of different rule systems, both for games and for running events. I'd say this gives me a lot of experience, and so do those around me.

Warhammer 40,000 isn't a game I enjoy the tournament scene for. I collect/paint/play for the background fluff. However, I pay attention to the competitive front because it often makes interesting articles and videos. This means I've looked into things like the ITC format. So I've seen various FAQs and interpretations of the rules as well as different build structures for forces.

A (probably) negative trait of mine is if I see something being run "badly", because I am aware of "better" ways of running them, I rapidly become annoyed with an event. This is worse if I am able to talk to the person responsible and they try and argue but can't bring evidence.

My worst two experiences in this regard;
A CardFightVanguard event where the TO tried changing the structure because his local team would have been knocked out. He tried arguing that Magic runs events the same way. To the best of my knowledge, Magic doesn't do Double Knockout events, so they wouldn't be run different to any other Double Knockout event. He refused to look at what we were showing him on Google, or show us any documentation that backed him up, despite the four of us being the TO's for Antics across several games and having a combined experience of nearly 20 years between us. That left us all, the other players from our store as well, with a sour taste in our mouths. Lee reported this to Bushiroad and the venue lost events, but it caused me to dedicate essentially zero time to playing the game since.

More recently, while watching a game of 40k. A couple of rules questions came up in a league match. When i raised them with the guy running the league, I was laughed at. I told him his rulings were wrong because he is clearly using an older edition; what he was saying is not in 7th edition. He continued to laugh at me and insisted that the rule was there. When I re-read the pages and told him to show me, he refused because he was "right" and if I couldn't find where it said so, he didn't need to show me.
The player involved, Chris, later checked in the local GW store and discovered I was correct.

I'm not perfect when it comes to rulings. But all it takes in these situations is reading the material, which takes no more time than the argument. Often, if a player is adamant they are correct, I will double check the wording on something. It's easier than issuing an apology to a player if you later find out you are wrong. Sometimes that isn't enough, as you may have missed a ruling that hasn't made it into the documentation yet. But at least your rulings are consistent with the documents you are using on the day.

The second incident, alongside my disdain whenever that person runs a 40k event, lead to either Chris or Ben (I can't remember which as they were both in the car for the conversation) suggesting that I should run events for 40k. They have experience other events I run and believed I would be good at it.

I let the idea rattle around for a while, but wasn't entirely sure where to go with it. Part of my problem with the competitive scene is the players it attracts. A few of them have really bad attitudes and I wouldn't have a legitimate reason for banning them from a public event. If they are willing to pay the entry fee and follow the rules, it's hard to say no. Their behaviour never quite becomes penalty-worthy unsporting conduct, but it puts other people off too. I know their presence is hurting attendance of certain events. Then, late last year, something changed.

A few of the Antics regulars moved into 40k. They had all been playing card games for years, and to be honest I don't know what prompted the move. Some of them used to play and wanted to get back into it. Some had always looked at the game with interest and seized the opportunity to join their friends. This led to a mix of people either bringing their old armies into a new edition or starting new armies. Literally in the case of those looking at Deathwatch and Genestealer Cult. They were semi-organising games in Antics, but only one game was happening at a time, and often only one game in a day.

This struck me as an opportunity. They are all semi-inexperienced with the rules. They are all good sports. They want to win, but want to have fun doing it. What if I ran an event for them? Kept it invite only to stop it being hijacked by those that value winning over fun?

Obviously, I couldn't run it in Antics. The group is too large for the amount of table space and terrain in the store (spoiler alert; they almost proved to be too much for Dark Star). So Dark Star was an obvious venue choice. Because I would have to charge them to cover the table tax, if I increase the cost a little I could put a prize (£10 voucher for Antics) on the line. If I held it on a Sunday, it wouldn't clash with any events for the other games they play. Then came simply a question of format.

If you've been reading my recent posts, you know the format. I looked to the Eternal War missions in the main rulebook, and chose one that was simple in victory conditions but also fun to play. Then it was a case of "Book it and they will come".

As they event came closer, I was being asked rules questions on the mission and advice for building armies. This lead to my tactica series. Some of the players read it and took advice from it. Others came up with their own tactics for the mission. The event was to be 3 rounds, each round playing The Relic mission. And most of the games on the day involved actual attempts to fight over the Relic, not just kill each other.

All in all, the event was a success. We had maximum attendance. Everyone that's spoken to me or anyone else about it has reported having fun. The chatter the week leading into the event was so positive that I booked a repeat event for March. And the chatter bore out. I'm so pleased with how the event went that I'm going to do one every month, and look at a 2 day, larger point event in the summer. Dark Star is looking at adding more tables in the near future, which will facilitate this. Not everyone I invited was able to make it to this one, and I don't want to leave any of the group out if I can help it.

The title of the event was a double entendre. It was a starter event for the players, to help them get to grips with the rules and playing in an event. It was a starter event for me, to help me get to grips with round times and tournament structure.

40K Starter Tournament Tactica - Part Four(c)

The Army List

Armies of the Imperium Formation

Triumvirate of the Imperium

Belisarius Cawl
200 points

Celestine
200 points

Inquisitor Greyfax
150 points

Space Marine Detachment

Allied Detachment

Chapter Tactics - Ultramarines

HQ

Sergeant Chronus, Predator, Heavy Bolter sponsons
145 points

Troops

5 Tactical Marines, Imperial Space Marine, Flamer
75 points

Elites

5 Sternguard Veterans, Drop Pod
145 points

Fast Attack

5 Assault Marines, Jump Packs
85 points

 Total 1000 points

40K Starter Tournament Tactica - Part Four(b)

We now have our Triumvirate and Ultramarines force. The question is (as you can guess by now) is how does it stack up against our mission objectives?

The Triumvirate are expensive, so we will have to see what goes best with their support abilities while still having an eye on capturing the Relic.

The army we've put them with is very small. I imagine most opposing armies will outnumber them significantly, even other elite Marines.
Belisarius Cawl will have a re-rollable Feel No Pain, and the ability to give himself and Sgt Chronus; It Will Not Die and an Invulnerable Save for one turn each.
Celestine and her Geminae are a fast moving, hard to permanently kill, assault force that should do well alongside the small squad of Assault Marines.
Inquisitor Greyfax  is a potent Psyker who will give the Tactical Marines both Preferred Enemy and Ballistic Skill 10 when hunting other Psykers.

That's why those units have been chosen to support them. So, onto the goals.

Goal 4 - Have Fun!

The Triumvirate seem powerful on paper, but take up half the points limit. My best bet for a trial list is to pair them with Space Marines, as you get a bit more survivability for the points than you would with other armies. it's probably going to be a low model count, so tabling is a real risk, but then the Big Three are quite survivable.

The fun here comes from in experimentation. Can the Triumvirate operate in such a small points game, or do they need more support to shine? Would we have been better off just taking one of them? Will the Drop Pod Sternguard work, or will they too often be out on a limb?
The only way to truly answer these questions would be to get some games in. I can see the unkillability of Cawl and Celestine being at odds with the probable ease in which opponents can kill off their squads. Sounds like it would actually be quite a fun game.

Goal 3 - Control the Relic

Both Cawl and Celestine are very hard to kill. Cawl is probably the better bet for holding the Relic, as Celestine's Jump Pack is wasted while she can only move 6" a turn. The aim should be to get it to him and hold it there. We probably want some Tactical Marines to form a squad with him for extra survivability. I'd suggest Terminators, but I'm concerned we wouldn't have enough points. 

 We didn't have enough points for Terminators, so instead we have the plan of dropping the Sternguard on the Relic in our first turn and trying to leapfrog them with the rest of the army. Essentially trying to put other bodies between them and the enemy. Should our opponent get to it first, the Sternguard's special ammo can help clear a squad off of the Relic. We still have the back-up plan of Cawl getting to it and seeing if he is actually unkillable.

Goal 2 - Survive opposing firepower and assault

Two of our three main characters are hard to kill. The third is disruptive. Surrounding all three with Power Armoured bodies should up the resilience even further.

 Our guys are resilient, but few in number. Our best chance of increasing their chances will be striking the enemy hard first. This hopefully stops them bringing their numbers to bear. However, I don't rate our chances of surviving much unless the Triumvirate live up to the hype.

 Goal 1 - Kill opposing models

Careful weapon choices for the Marines should do the job. this list might struggle at the killing part. That said, the Triumvirate aren't slouches in assault.

  Tabling the opponent doesn't feel like a realistic goal with this force. There will be that one squad/model that we just don't have time to reach. However, for the ones we can reach, our Primary Detachment is quite adept at killing both infantry and vehicles. Playing the mission and killing the correct targets is the way to go here I feel.

Of the three armies I've discussed on this Blog, this feels like the most challenging. And not in a good way. It does kinda feel like the games would be an uphill struggle unless played very carefully. However, I could be wrong. I could be completely underestimating the Triumvirate entirely. Maybe in such a small game they are a dominating force and the Marines just push them over the top. The only way to find out would be to play them, which brings us back to Goal 4. If you think that trying out new models this way is worth it, then this is the army for you. Otherwise you may want to try something more akin to how your chosen army normally operates, until you get a feel for the army.

Join us for the final part (Part 5) where I look at the event itself

40K Starter Tournament Tactica Part Four(a)

For part one
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-one.html?zx=85903b73151aaf60
For part two
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoa.html?zx=2ec544f5f9fe1cb5
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twob.html?zx=dcbf2c663ed10deb
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoc.html?zx=35bf1e2fbd18adab
For part three
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part_5.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part_72.html

That should catch you up. Only one more recap-link posting needed during the final part of this...

So, Part Four. The Triumvirate of the Imperium 

Building the Army

The Triumvirate is a Formation that contains Saint Celestine, Belisarius Cawl and Inquisitor Greyfax. They are 3 amazing new models with a bunch of special rules. Anyone getting hold of these models will probably want to use one or more of them as soon as possible. So, we've got a couple of choices. We can either pick one to use and build an army around them, with them as the HQ. Or we can go the route I'm taking and build an army containing their Formation.
The question then becomes what to pair them with? Their parent factions each have their own pros and cons. I'm not familiar with Ad Mech and Inquisition lends itself best to being an addition to a main force rather than being one itself. This would seem to leave Sisters of Battle, but I want to look at them on their own at some point, they work best with their Acts of Faith if you don't have non-Sisters join their units. Meanwhile I have already built 2 sample Astra Militarum armies for this event.
Therefore I'm going to build a Space Marines army. Because we are going to be so short on points, I'm going to use the Allied Detachment.

Triumvirate of the Imperium

This will be our main Detachment, and so our Warlord will come from it. It's special rules give friendly Armies of the Imperium units Stubborn if they are within 12" of two of the three members and Fearless if they are within 12" of all three.
The other special rule is if one of them is the Warlord, then they can all use their Warlord traits. I'm going to choose Cawl for this job, He and Celestine are both pretty difficult to kill, but I expect the Saint to be surging forward looking for trouble. So he should keep this rule active as long as possible.

Allied Detachment

This Detachment has several restrictions that don't actually matter to use and one special rule. It also has 2 mandatory unit choices and 4 optional ones.
It cannot be our Primary Detachment. This is fine as we have the Triumvirate for that.
It cannot contain our Warlord. Again, the Triumvirate not only supplies better candidates for Warlord, but has a rule that benefits containing one.
It gives the Troops units in the Detachment Objective Secured. This isn't useful, but we are taking this to support the Triumvirate, not for it's own sake.

The best way to build this will be to make choices that support each individual character.

Mandatory Choices

HQ

Our HQ will also determine our choice of Chapter Tactics. Belisarius Cawl works best alongside a Tank, and there is the perfect commander to accompany him. Sergeant Chronus fulfills our mandatory HQ, and brings his own tank. I'd put him in a Predator and give it sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters. He can get bonuses from Cawl, and sets our Chapter Tactics to Ultramarines. This gives us three turns of choice re-rolls for the army.

Troops

The second mandatory choice is a Troops unit. Here I'm picking something to support Inquisitor Greyfax. 5 Tactical Marines give her a suitable bodyguard. To keep the points low, we are taking them at bare bones, but adding a Flamer to help clear out hordes/defend on Overwatch. I will also replace one of them with the Imperial Space Marine to add extra firepower at zero cost. This is a little cheesy, but we need every advantage we can get with an army this small.

Optional Choices

Fast Attack

Our first optional choice is something to join Celestine in hunting units for combat, and add some mobility to the force. 5 Assault Marines with Jump Packs and no other upgrades should make a decent choice. Not only can they keep pace with her, but between the Saint and her Geminae they don't need much more help.

Elites

Our final optional choice is kinda special. We are going to take 5 Sternguard Veterans in a Drop Pod. The Drop Pod brings them in via Deep Strike automatically on Turn One. We can either drop them on the Relic or in our opponents back lines to threaten some of their units. This is achieved via their Special Issue Ammunition which allows them to select the right gun for the right target. They will either take out a threat to our army or claim the Relic as the Saint and her squad leapfrog them to fend off the enemy.

That brings us to exactly 1000 points and 20 models. Not the most imposing presence on the Battlefield, but with precision application of the units we have a chance. That said, the Triumvirate might be quite a sledgehammer. In our Part Four(b) we will look at how this could work on the tabletop and how it lines up with our goals.

40K Starter Tournament Tactica - Part Three(c)

The Army List

Astra Militarum Formation Army
The Emperor's Blade Assault Company

Company Command Squad, Astropath. Vox-caster, Flamer, Plasma Gun, Meltagun, Carapace Armour, Camo Gear
Chimera, Dozer Blade, Camo Netting
236 points

Veterans, Vox-caster, Flamer, Plasma Gun, Meltagun, Grenadiers, Forward Sentries
Chimera, Dozer Blade, Camo Netting
205 points

Veterans, Vox-caster, Flamer, Plasma Gun, Meltagun, Grenadiers, Forward Sentries
Chimera, Dozer Blade, Camo Netting
205 points

Veterans, Vox-caster, Flamer, Plasma Gun, Meltagun, Grenadiers, Forward Sentries
Chimera, Dozer Blade, Camo Netting
205 points

Hellhound, Dozer Blade, Camo Netting
145

Total 996 points

40K Starter Tournament Tactica - Part Three(b)

So, there we have a build for our Formation army. How does it stack up against our mission objectives?

Formations tend to be a little more specialised, so we will have to go through the options and see which one fits our needs best while also fitting in the points limit.

We found one that seems to fit the mission perfectly. Getting Preferred Enemy against any unit that is controlling the Relic should go a long way to make up for the low Strength of lasguns. We sacrificed some of the resiliency of other Guard builds for mobility in our transports, which should help us play keep-away if we get to the Relic first.

Goal 4 - have Fun! 

The Formation idea is to find something that would be good at the mission. Not all Formations are created equally,and some of them are completely unsuitable. 3 of the Guard ones cost more than the 1000 points we have available, and another 2 don't have a lot of room for upgrades. I'm going to build the Emperor's Blade Assault Company. It has a mix of vehicles, infantry and firepower. And as the infantry are Veterans, they have a decent Ballistic Skill. 

I quite like this Formation, surprisingly. It doesn't have the masses of Infantry I normally favour, but is still fun. Your troops still feel like underdogs versus a lot of the foes you will face. I also may have gone overboard on the upgrades to try and compensate. But that's what makes it fun. A small, elite force of men trying their best.

Goal 3 - Control the Relic

The Emperor's Blade has a core, decent amount of infantry, backed up by transport vehicles. So in a similar vein, speed up to the Relic, jump out of the vehicles to control it, then mount a fighting retreat, using the Chimeras to protect the squads from mass firepower and to channel assault lines.

Something I've not talked about yet with the scenario is Transport Vehicles. While only non-Vehicle models can pick up the Relic, such a model can then get into a transport. The vehicle can't move faster than 6", or it ejects the Relic, but that still gives the squad inside an extra layer of protection. Also, Moving Flat Out is 6", while Running is D6". So, it gives you a better chance of getting further away should the need arise.

Goal 2 - Survive opposing firepower and assault 

This list has a lower body count than I usually prefer. The survivability on this one will come from careful use of the vehicles to screen the infantry, meaning threats to the vehicles need to be taken out quickly. We should also consider upgrading the infantry to have camo cloaks and carapace armour, and maybe camo for the tanks too.

 We were able to afford all the defensive upgrades we wanted. Our troops have a 4+ Armour save, which protects against a lot of basic weapons. Then the whole army gets a 6+ Cover save, or improved if they are actually in cover. These two measures will help versus a lot of shooting. Close combat is a weakness, though the Flamers give us a little bit of improved Overwatch.

Goal 1 - Kill opposing models

The Chimera's have decent guns, and the Hellhound is great at slaying opposing infantry. The squads can have 3 special weapons and 1 heavy, so this list can kick out a fair amount of firepower for a small amount of units.

I've spread the special weapons amongst the units. This will stop my opponent singling out, for instance, my anti-tank weapons and destroying them before we can bring them to bear. It means that each squad has a decent chance against any foe. Chimera's are great battle transports too. They have 2 decent guns themselves, as well as a decent ability while they have troops inside. 2 models from the transported unit can fire from the top, at a separate unit to the tank. Also the unit can man the Lasgun Array, each array able to shoot at a different target from the models shooting out of the top, the tank and each other. We can engage a wide variety of targets while we are mounted. The Inferno Cannon on the Hellhound is really good against infantry and the Preferred Enemy gives us a boost in this department, plus we still have access to orders. This is an Army that needs to play the mission though, I doubt we can switch to tabling the opponent if things go awry. But achieving missions is what the Emperor's Blade is designed for.

While I'd be happy fielding the previous Guard army, this one is closer to what I'd actually try out. It covers all the bases the mission needs while feeling like a challenge to play. It's a Formation I've been experimenting with ever since the Mont'Ka book it's in came out. It's proving to pair well alongside a CAD build similarly to our previous army. The Emperor's Blade moves out to take forward objectives while the CAD holds our back line and offers long range cover fire. It feels like one of the better ways of building Infantry based Astra Militarum forces, as the core Infantry choice in the Cadian Battle Group is expensive at it's base cost and the upgrades add up quickly. Also with more points you can look at possibly adding Heavy Weapons to the squads and adding more Hellhounds, including their variants.


In the next part, we will look at building around the Triumvirate of the Imperium and then the final part of this series will be exploring the event itself.

40K Starter Tournament Tactica - Part Three(a)

For part one
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-one.html
For part two
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoa.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twob.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoc.html

Now you should be all caught up, so onto Formation Armies.

Choosing the Formation

I guess the first question is, why build a Formation as opposed to using the CAD? The CAD is a good place to start building armies, as it's straight-forward choosing units from your Codex to fit the mission. However, 7th Edition introduced Formations and Detachments for army building. The CAD is a Detachment (hence the D). These allow you to take thematic groupings of units without worrying about filling in other sections. They provide special rules to the units within them, much like the CAD does. Best of all, so box sets come with a Formation, meaning you can play the force straight out of the box without needing the minimums of the CAD.

So, what are we looking for in our Formation?

The Formation idea is to find something that would be good at the mission. Not all Formations are created equally,and some of them are completely unsuitable. 3 of the Guard ones cost more than the 1000 points we have available, and another 2 don't have a lot of room for upgrades.

We are looking for something that both fits the mission and it's limitations. The limitations is the easy part. We want 1000 points or less, no Lords of War and no Flyers. So it's finding one with a combination of units and special rules that will be good for the mission.

I've looked through the list and chosen the Emperor's Blade Assault Company for the Astra Militarum. Their other ones are either too expensive, or not as good at the job. This Formation comes with two special rules. One terrible and one amazing.

Infantry from this Formation have Objective Secured

This is terrible. Normally, Objective Secured is a useful ability, and is the main rule of the CAD. However, the Relic is picked up by a model, so it doesn't matter if you have this rule and they don't if they get to it first. So why choose a Formation with a dud rule? Because the other rule makes up for it.

Models from this Formation have; Preferred Enemy - Enemy units within 6" of an Objective Marker

Turns out that the Relic is still an Objective Marker! While the mission rules stop it from interacting with our first ability, they don't stop the other. Our units will re-roll 1s for hits and wounds against the enemy unit carrying the Relic if they get to it first. And any other units within 6". Also, should we get the Relic and be assaulted, we get the benefit in close combat too.

Our Formation is already primarily Veterans, who are Guardsmen with BS4. So this should help overcome the weakness that we usually attempt to overcome with numbers. So what is the Formation made of?

1 Company Command Squad, must be mounted in a Chimera or Taurox
3 Veteran Squads, must all be mounted in Chimeras or Tauroxes (in any combination)
1-3 Hellhound Squadrons

An elite force of Guard designed to get in and take objectives. Sounds like the perfect force to capture the Relic for the Emperor :)

Building the Formation

Taking the minimums for the Formation comes to 625 points. This leaves us 375 points for upgrades. The only option we have for extra units is more Hellhound Squadrons, which can be up to 3 tanks each. Given that we want more Infantry than Vehicles, so we can pick up the Relic, it's probably best to not go down that route.

Our Company Command Squad will have Carapace Armour, Camo Gear, a Vox and one each of Plasma Gun, Meltagun and Flamer. This should give them fire options against a wide variety of opponents. They will also be accompanied by an Astropath for psychic defence and access to Psychic Shriek. Their Chimera will stick with Multi-laser and Heavy Bolter, and be give a Dozer Blade and Camo-netting.

Our 3 Veteran Squads will be identical to each other and very similar to their commander, just with more men in the squads. Carapace Armour, Camo Gear, Vox, Plasma Gun, Meltagun and Flamer. Their Chimeras will follow suit with Multi-laser, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade and Camo-netting.

Finally, our Hellhound will have upgrades that mark it as similar to the rest of the group. Inferno Cannon, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade and Camo-netting.

That comes out to 996 points across 41 models. Definitely more compact than our CAD design, but equally more mobile. Part 3(b) will cross-check this army against our goals, and part 3(c) will simply be the Army List.