Hi everyone !! Your friendly neighborhood Blowfly here to brighten your day again with a local 40k RTT report. This tournament was three rounds - 2250 points with double FOC and allies but no Forge World. Some buddies and I drove down leaving early in the morning since it's over an hour away. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at McDees via the drive through. This is one of the local FLGS that likes to run larger events and I always try to make these ones since I love big games.
Sorry but no pictures this week. I am in the process of buying a new digital camera so hopefully I will have some nice pix for the next batrep.
Here is my abbreviated army list:
Necrons - Primary Detachment
Destroyer Lord - mindshackle scarabs, 2+ armor (attached to Wraiths)
4x Canoptek Wraith - whip coils
Overlord - warscythe, mindshackle scarabs, phase shifter - Catacomb Command Barge
6x Immortal - Tesla carbines - Night Scythe
5x Warrior
5x Warrior
5x Warrior
Doom Scythe
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
8x Canoptek Scarab
Grey Knights - Allied Detachment
Level 3 Librarian - master crafted warding stave (attached to Paladins)
5x Paladin - 2x psycannon, 4x daemonhammer, master crafted warding stave - psybolt ammo
10x Grey Knight - 2x psycannon - psybolt ammo
Army List Analysis
If you follow my articles on this army you'll know that in the past I used Coteaz attached to a full squad of Purifiers with lots of neat toys for my deathstar unit. I have been wanting to test out Paladins over Purifiers and at this point level I could also take a Librarian in place of the Inquisitor... So I was very interested to see how overall the army would perform with these changes.
I recently played in an 1850 point GT over in Orlando - the army list here is much the same noting the changes above plus the addition of the Canoptek Wraiths to form a retinue for my Destroyer Lord. I did well at the GT and was the only undefeated player going into the final sixth round so I know this army is well tested and has always performed quite well. Ironically I narrowly lost in the final round to the only other Necron-Grey Knight army in an epic low scoring match that knocked us both out of contention for an award. Oh well at least it felt great going into the final round.
I have designed this army to be as completely balanced as possible. It has lots of shooting, plenty of speed plus lots of very strong dedicated melee units. To be competitive in sixth edition it's all about building very balanced armies that excel in all three phases. The Necrons tend to do most of the heavy lifting while the Grey Knights are a razor sharp scalpel. They work very well together and don't have to lend much support to each other except for overlapping focused fire. I don't use any fortifications as I typically move most of my units around the entire game. I also tend to place objective markers in the middle of the table to force opponents to have to come out of their deployment zones to get them.
Mission Summaries
1st Round vs. Blood Angels
The mission had five objectives with DoW deployment.
The Blood Angels army had two land raiders (Crusader & Redeemer) plus two Storm Ravens. There were two full assault squads with jump packs and one had a Priest. The Crusader had a squad of Death Company lead by a Chaplain. The Redeemer had a full assault squad (sans jump packs) lead by a Captain and another Priest.
I felt confident going into this match knowing that Necrons have lots of answers to AV14 plus the barges are really good versus flyers in general.
Highlights
•Anni barges shot down both Stormravens
•Scarabs and Destroyer Lord cracked open both land raiders
Only one Death Company Marine was left at the end for a full massacre (18 points). I ended up only needing to hold one objective.
2nd Round vs. Ork Horde
The mission was Big Guns Never Tire with Hammer and Anvil deployment. There were three objective markers.
My opponent had well over 150 greenskins including Ghaz with a big Nob squad, two battlewagons, looted wagon, some killakanz and Lootaz. I was able to pop all four enemy HS units (destroyed both battlewagons my first turn... Scarabs and Gauss FTW). This game I pulled 16 out of a possible 18 battle points for the win. Ghaz never made it into melee so I couldn't get Slay the Warlord and I needed the Immortals to late game grab one of the uncontested objectives so no Line Breaker either.
3rd Round vs. Tyranids
The mission was The Relic with Vanguard Strike for deployment.
Another horde army with over 200 models - not the typical Internet meta list we see all the time now but this was definitely my toughest game. My opponent had over six scoring units - including two big broods of devilgaunts, two big broods of hormagants, some genestealers and two small Warrior broods. He had a walking Tyrant and the winged jump infantry character for his HQ. There was also some Zoies, Raveners and a Trygon Prime. Definitely a target rich environment !!
There was a big turn out so there were quite a few undefeated players going into the last round. I knew I would need a big win to come out on top. It just seemed like it would very hard to control the Relic versus all those large scoring units and it wouldn't be easy to score any bonus points either.
I got to go first but my opponent seized the initiative - sheet ! This actually worked out to my advantage though since a squad of hiding Warriors popped out to grab the Relic at the end of the last turn. The Tyranid player's dice were smoking hot and mine were below average most of the time but I still managed to pull out the win with 17 battle points out of a possible 18 (he got First Blood because one gaunt in a 20 man brood managed to live taking the full brunt of almost my army's entire shooting - he cast Endurance on them and Denied the Witch when I cast the Misfortune malediction on them).
It wasn't an easy game to say the least... Destroyer Lord with Wraiths and Librarian leading the Paladins were definitely the MVPs this game. The Destroyer Lord and his Canoptek friends took out the Tyrant (MSS FTW) then held off an entire brood of hormagants to prevent them from swamping the area around the objective. My Librarian got Prescience and the Divination psychic power that lets the unit shoot at full BS on Overwatch which allowed them to totally annihilate a big brood of charging Raveners. It was a tight game but everything came together in the end.
Post Tourney Analysis
It was very interesting to play two really large horde armies and the last two games only made it to a third turn... What can you do ? I don't think either of these opponents intentionally slow played but they just didn't seem to manage their time wisely which ended up hurting them a lot more than me... Heh heh . The squad of Immortals in the Night Scythe was a big advantage for late game objective grabs and Line Breaker. So knowing you probably won't be able to get in a full game ahead of time you have to adjust your strategy accordingly. In the past I've gotten frustrated but I was well prepared this time. ; )
I definitely prefer the Paladins over Purifiers... Eight psycannon shots every time with Prescience and sometimes Misfortune and/or Ignore Cover is very powerful (I got all three of these versus the Blood Angels by the way). I found the level 3 Librarian a bit stronger than Coteaz, mostly due to the extra psychic power but I'd only use him over the Inquisitor in games at 2000 points and above.... It's also nice to have the option to deep strike them.
So I ended up in a tie with one other player for first place and we split the store prize support. One of my buddies who down came with me ended up losing to the fellow I tied with for first place in the last round. It was a great day and I liked all my opponents... No problems whatsoever. I used the prize support to get some paints and weathering dust for my World Eaters army I will bring to WarGamesCon for the Heresy campaign.
