So the dust had settled after LGT and I was very hungry to start changing my list in response to my experience at the tournament.

I felt that I did not have enough killing power when I needed it, I couldn’t delete Rogal Dorn tanks, I was afraid of going head to head with my Terminators v Bullgryn, I had been overwhelmed by marauding space wolves, with repulsor tanks, Wulfen and Headtakers.

I turned to the dark side, I started looking at big knight allies Gallant’s, Lancer’s. I needed more tanks, vindicators, yes they killed stuff well, or redemptor dreadnaught’s!! I started leaning towards a full re-write and taking an almost all armour list. Big scary tanks, maybe a landraider, yes!! TOR GARADON in a landraider, he jumps out like an anti tank missile and kills whatever he touches.

I was in a total frenzy, the desire for victory had gripped me and I was slipping back into the dark days of my past, when giving the SWORD OF TECLIS to a chaos sorcerer seemed like the best option for more and more POWER!!!

Fortunately as a few weeks passed, I was able to enhance my calm and not go full demolition man. I remembered that I had won 2 games and very narrowly lost a 3rd. I had been able to kill a lot of Custodes, I had killed a brick of Necron Wraiths in 1 round (filthy necrons) and remembered that the 2 people I had taken a battering from were vastly more experienced than myself……..WAKE UP MAN!! YOU’VE PLAYED 8 GAMES OF 40K!!!

So luckily I decided what I should do was to take some advice from Elliott the space wolf and give the Gladius detachment a go. I thought I could do something to boost the hitting power of the heavy intercessors as they would be losing the strike from the shadows buff. So I ended up settling on removing a squad of scouts and adding a new Apothecary Biologis, which would give them lethal hits.

40KBRAWL GT at ENTOYMENT in POOLE

I was going into the Tournament a 2 day 5 game GT with high hopes but low expectations. There were 40 players and it dawned on me that at a smaller tournament like this the average skill level was likely to be higher than at a super GT (this proved to be true!)

Luckily I live near the Entoyment gaming centre and so I didn’t need to worry about travelling or accommodation.

DANTE and the BLOOD ANGELS

My First match was against a Blood Angels player and a chap who had been playing for many years. I was going second, so thought that was favourable but I hadn’t thought that through! I realise now that all the information I have stored from watching games and reading, seems to go out the window when I start a game, as I’m still at the stage where I’m struggling to remember the basics like my own stratagems!! What I should have remembered, is that they were likely to mass charge me with a huge go turn and thats exactly what he did on turn 2.

I was trapped back in my own deployment zone, I tried punching back out on my turn 2 using tactical doctrine to fall back shoot and charge but I kinda flopped my shooting and I didn’t have enough high damage shooting to deal with all of the sanguinary guard. Once the 2 vindicators came onto the board as well, I was truly stuck in my half of the battelfield and was never able to recover, we played through 5 turns, though the battle was over by the end of turn 3 really.

What did I learn…..if a melee army swamp me, my list will really struggle to punch free, so I need to counter that turn one…….still very hard when almost every unit they have can fly!!!!!!

TRAJANN and the OILY GYM BRO’s

Game 2 and things only got tougher!! I was playing against Sie a super friendly and really nice guy but also one of the guys helping to organise the event and act as a judge. He’d been playing 40K forever and had a really nicely painted Custodes army who’s list was glittering with Meta magic dust.

Playing against these mofo’s can be demoralising if you aren’t able to hit back, when your oppo his hitting on 2’s re-rolling 1’s, it feels a bit broken. I made some rookie mistakes (of course) such as lining up 2 ballistus dreadnaughts and a lancer to shoot one unit of Custodes (I was fully tilted and in a black rage) only to fire the first Ballistus, totally whiff and then thanks to Inquisitor Draxus reactive move, they rolled a 4inch move and nothing else could see them to shoot FOOK!!!

That was kind of the nail in the coffin really and it was only turn 2, the Custodes then pretty much killed everything they touched. With plus 1 to wound, hitting on 2’s re-rolling 1’s and everything damage 2 or 3, it was shocking how they obliterated the fists. I was traumatised and remember we talked out the last turn. The Gravis captain heroically rolled out a combat and managed to take down a couple of golden boys before he was sliced and diced by TRAJANN and the crew.

I wasn’t sure what I could take from this match up, I was the worst crushing to date. Sie talked me through a few ideas and was really helpful after the battle. He thought I needed to re-think the list and I need more killing power and to be honest I think he is right. The Ballistus are good into other tanks or light vehicles and monsters but against elite infantry they dont really have to volume of shots. He’s also right that Terminators just don’t hit as hard as they might and are still quite expensive. However I need to remember he was a good player with a smoking badass army list and I’m a lowly NOOB!!

The BOBBLEHEADS

Game 3 was against Genestealer cults and another NOOB, he had been playing longer than myself but was in my league at least!

He was playing a horde ish kind of army and we were playing purge the foe. I can’t recall many details from this game but I do recall that he pushed hard straight away and looked to take board control, as usual I found myself kind of stuck back in my deployment zone (Is it me? or my list? or both?) Anyway the bobbleheads were all over me and I felt like I was about to be impregnated by some bobble genes!! I had to do something…..FAST.

Xenos filth everywhere!!! Purge the filth!!!

Turn 3 I brought in my reserves and by this point had killed several units and my oppo was out of resurrection points (or whatever they are???) Finally I was going to be killing things for good. I had a monster Turn managing to focus fire down killing a 20 man and scoring cull the horde as well as killing more and holding more. I’d closed the gap in the game to 53-62 at the end of turn 3. Sadly we then timed out, I was a bit miffed as I was in a position where I felt I would for sure be scoring two 12’s in the next 2 turns and would have seriously crippled the xenos filth. But alas it went down as a loss.

I felt a little battered after day 1 and the last game left a bad taste but it taught me a lesson that I should have suggested we play on a clock. Its seen as a bit mean to do that but then timing out because you have a horde army and winning is also mean lol

DAY 2 THE BECONS ARE LIT!!

I started the second day with renewed vigour and was focussed and determined to get a win!

GAME 4 SHORTIES WITH CRAZY GUNS

The Votaan, I had played one friendly game against Votaan before and so knew a few things, like how they would want to get onto the objectives asap to get their bonuses for being greedy dwarfs. I was facing down 3 hekaton landfortresses but big tanks were something I was good at dealing with (I should have remembered that in game 5)

Hold on scouts, remember your training!!!!

As always I ended up deep in my own deployment zone and was taking a bit of a hammering early game. My oppo lined up some crazy shooting with some thunderkyn, I think he was critical hits 4+ lethal hits and sustained 2, re-rolling hits maybe wounds as well!! It was bananas and like Game 3 I had to do something I was losing.

Then good old GLADIUS helped me out with an advance and shoot turn 3 in devastator doctrine, some nice reserves coming in helped as well. My lancer came in on a board edge, shot at a damaged Hekaton and nuked it long range across the board and then deleted a unit of dwarfs who had been holding an objective, I’d wanted to charge and tank shock them to score the objective myself next turn but killed them off in shooting!! A nice rapid ingress of my terminators right on the edge of enemy deployment in behind some cover, meant next turn they shot at a couple of remaining bikes with a ballistus also firing in which also dropped in from reserves.

The Terminators charged turn 4 they were able to tag the Hekaton nearest them and killed it in 1 round of melee, helped by the 3 chainfists, Oath of moment and some failed saves. Things suddenly switched. In turns 3 and 4 I had been able to kill 2 hekatons and a tonne of action units and for the first time had taken control of the primary, we were playing scorched earth and by the end of turn 4 I had taken an unassailable lead, the board was under my control save for one objective marker, I was also threatening to burn his home objective on turn 5.

I had got lucky with my oppo failing some saves on a hekaton but these things balance out as he’d rolled hot early in the game.

Finally a victory!!, I don’t recall the score, I think it was by about 10 points, something like 75-65.

My style of play definitely seems to rely on sitting back abosrbing what my enemy has and then hitting back but in games 1 and 2, I couldn’t absorb the power of those 2 armies, so I need to seriously consider this in future.

GAME 5 SPACE MARINES???!!

The IRON HANDS must have not got the memo and wanted to go to war with the IMPERIAL FISTS!!

My oppo was playing the new detachment led by the new terminator character CAANOK VAR! I found out that he and the detachment have some very good rules!! I was also facing down triple Redemptor dreadnaught’s.

I was going first and had a tentative turn 1, though I don’t think that was a bad thing, I was facing some very heavy firepower, I managed to score secondaries well in the first turn and 2nd turn and was terraforming objectives, I pushed hard down the right flank to my natural expansion, I had terminators and the brutalis holding the centre behind the ruins and left the left side to my heavy intercessors and a brutalis. My oppo went big to try and stop my terraforming of the right flank objective and sent in his bladgaurd vets unit of 6 and the judiciar. They split attacks between my invictor warsuit and scouts and didn’t kill either unit outright!! That was a big moment and gave me a chance to hit back.

My trap had worked, I knew I had my predator waiting for those Blade guard (my god something worked!), I was able to fall back in tactical doctrine and then blasted the hell out of the blade guard with the warsuit and a predator tank, with Oath of moment and the subsequent charge of the warsuit, the blade guard and judiciar were given the Emperors Peace!!

The redemptors stepped out and totally wrecked my heavy intercessors, which I never should have exposed, I’d done the same with my lancer and my oppo brought on both vindicators from reserves and crushed me. 3 redemptors and 2 vindicators hit hard!! I lost a lancer my heavies and the warsuit. I was down on the score board but not way down, however things looked grimm!

But…..but!!! then I saw an opening a long bomb chance to go for my oppo’s home!! THANK YOU GLADIUS!! I switched into assault doctrine and launched my jump pack intercessors into action, they would need a 6 or 7 to do the business on the inflitrators holding home and they sure got it, killing all but 1 infiltrator, my terminators and Brutalis charged the redemptors in the centre and the brutalis ripped one of them apart, with the aid of the terminators! I had somehow managed to throw my oppo into disarray, taking all but one objective away from him. The vindicator on the right I had shot with the predator taking it to just 3 wounds I decided to charge and tank shock it and tie it in combat, just so it could move around, I only did 2 wounds rom tank shock so it lived! I had meant to bring in my other Ballistus and shoot it but forgot to bring it in from reserves. My oppo kindly let me bring it in on a table edge but it was far too late by then for me to run through the shooting phase.

My inflitrators just hid on my home and the lack of movement of the other vindicator and my oppo having to pull resources back to try and retake his home meant they were safe and I scored big primary turns 4 and 5 along with getting some nice secondary draws and my hero scout Sgt who had survived the blade guard, came in from uppy downy reserves and scored me engage on all fronts for max.

It looked like I had won the game somehow but after my oppo thought through every option and also scored 10 on secondaries in his last turn, we ended with a draw. A fair and nice result.

A rollercoaster of a tournament for me. finishing 1-1-3 but it easily could have been 3-2 (although i’d have played better opponents probably if I’d won game 3. However it was again very encouraging.

LESSONS

Use the strat to put heavies into devastator doctrine and storm of fire. Then they are AP -2 and ignore cover. Its 2 CP but one is free thanks to the captain and its really worth it, making Sanguinary guard and Custodes save on 4’s instead of 2’s and Marines on 5’s instead 3’s is MASSIVE and makes the heavy lads a proper threat.
Attack tanks with tanks, seems simple but I need to get my match ups right and not try firing ballistus or the Lancer into enemy elite unless there is no other choice.
Play to your outs! don’t give up, if it looks like you just have to go all in and try to smash one flank, do it. Overwhelming one board edge at least gives you some breathing space and likely at least one objective held in no mans land.
Remember your rules and stratagems, little bonuses here and there like remembering terminators are plus 1 to hit against oath target, combi lieutenant re roll ones on the objective, it all adds up.
Know your enemy!! It’s hard when you are new but knowing what the opposing units can and can’t do is obviously a massive advantage, don’t be afraid to ask during the game.
If you suspect a clock might be needed, put them on a clock!!

ARMY LIST CHANGES

No, I’m being sensible and sticking with things for a little longer, I have 2 super major GT’s in february BEACH HEAD and MANCHESTER UKTC GT. I think I’ll play both of those and see where things are at. I know that with luck I could go 3-2 and that should be satisfaction enough at my early stage. What would I lean towards at the moment…..hmmm switching a ballistus for a vindicator? ballistus for redemptor? Brutalis for either or? The trouble is I like the Brutalis model a lot, people also don’t rate the terminators for their points cost. I think as always it all depends on “THE META”

Career record 3 Wins 6 Losses 1 Draw (should be 5 wins 5 losses insert moody face lol)

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