TOURNAMENT REPORT: WHEAT CITY OPEN 2019

Well, the day has come and gone and it's time for us to discuss the Wheat City Open 2019 that was held Feb 16 and 17.  It was a blast.  I had 5 really awesome opponents, and awesome for various reasons.

Before I get into my games though, I have to discuss the venue as it was held in one of the Keystone Center's large convention halls.  The Keystone Center is primarily a sports complex so the hall was all concrete and high ceilings and an industrial finish.  This led to a couple issues, primarily the noise level (it was LOUD), but it also had some temperature issues and at one point it got so cold that my fingers started to fumble models a bit.  However, this was easily overlooked because each table had at least 10 feet of space on all sides of it.  I could have done cartwheels mid game and not hit anything.  This goes a long way to not only prevent a "moon landing"...

...but also keep models safe during movement from table to table.  We also had our own "parking stalls", a table with our name on it, to put all your stuff before, during, and after games.  It's also where you would set up your army for paint judging.  I absolutely hope they keep getting this location for future events.

I do have a couple pretty large gripes though.  Things were getting answered way too late, and the things that were getting answered were getting changed late in the process.  For example, they announced in the players packet that they would be using the ITC rules for terrain, but during the morning announcements they decided that enclosed ruins would be impassable.  This had a huge effect on the event as there were a handful of flier heavy Eldar lists that really got a boost due to infantry not being able to hide from them.

Secondly, the terrain was very inconsistent from table to table with very little variety of terrain on many tables.  One table I played on had nothing but shipping containers, and while there was quite a few, with decent LOS blocking, there was nowhere to get a cover save.  Another table had only blocky rocks, and too few of them.  Again nowhere to actually get a cover save from, or hide from fliers, of which I played against 3 on that table.  While on another table, there were 6-7 very large enclosed buildings, it almost looked like there was more table taken up by buildings than was open.

On to my list and how I hoped it would work.

Battalion 1 - Alpha Legion

Sorcerer, force axe, combi-bolter, Nurgle

Sorcerer, force axe, combi-bolter, Slaanesh

10 cultists, flamer, Nurgle

10 cultists, flamer, Nurgle

40 cultists, autoguns, 4 heavy stubber

Scorpius, Nurgle

Scorpius, Nurgle

Outrider 1 - Alpha Legion

Chaos Lord with Jump pack

8 Raptors - 2 plasma guns and a combi plasma

3 Bikers, 2 plasma guns

5 Bikers, 2 melta guns and a combi melta

Battalion 2 - Undivided Chaos Daemons

Khorne Daemon Prince with wings

Khorne Herald

25 Bloodletters

3 Nurglings

3 Nurglings

My Sorcerers took Prescience, Miasma of Pestilence, Warptime, and Delightful Agonies almost every game.  They were support units, but a couple times, particularly in the last game, I found that I could have used a couple more offensive spells.  The cultists got a flamer, mainly because I would find a time in many of my practice games where I would need the cultists to do SOMETHING.  They didn't break any backs, but they contributed in some games.  The big unit of cultists didn't do what I thought they would do, and that is because they didn't have Abaddon for re-rolls.  With Alpha Legion traits, they would have been better used as multiple smaller units and grab objectives.  The Scorpius tanks worked really well for me in my practice games, but were utterly underwhelming during the tournament. 

I had included the Raptors to go into the enclosed ruins so they can both hide and flush out the other infantry in there.  It never came up as you can probably guess.  I used Forward Operatives more often than not because most of the tables I played on really had nowhere safe for them to drop in.  This also allowed me to get a first turn charge off a couple of times which was kind of handy.

The bikes and cultists were primarily there to open a hole for the Bloodletters to get in and do what they do, and for the most part they did.

On to my games, which I won't go into great detail on but touch on a couple insightful moments and thoughts.

GAME 1

I played a fellow Team Maxx member named George and he was playing Drukari.  He had 3 Ravagers, 3 Talos, Venoms with dudes in them, and 2 units of Reavers all in 2 Battalions.

George is not a very experience player, so he didn't protect himself from the Bloodletters or keep his back line secure to stop me from using Tide of Traitors to move the cultists behind his army.  The Bloodletters came in turn 2 and got a 15" charge which allowed them to kill all 3 Talos and surround a character to prevent getting shot at.

He put 2 of the Ravagers into the Webway, but by the time they came in I had the game in the bag.  There was also a very large pile of shipping containers, that blocked LOS, right in the middle of the table which made it pretty easy to avoid the Ravagers.  I pushed my Bikes up the Right side, and my Raptors up the left which really limited his choices for deep striking.  Against me, he should have just started the Ravagers on the table.

GAME 2

I played Patrick, and Patrick was under the same impression as me that there would be those enclosed ruins.  He brought a Castellan and 2 Armigers, a Battalion of AdMech, and 10 Paladins with Draigo, a Banner dude, and a Librarian.  His thought process before the tourney was that the Paladins would drop in in one of those "magic box" ruins, cast Astral Aim, then stormbolter things to death while staying out of LOS, and if anything got close he could jump out and lay the smack down.

This table had some variety in terrain, but there was still nowhere I could actually hide any of my Scorpius tanks and one got nuked right from the get go as the Nova cannon tore it a new one.  However the other Scorpius managed to wither 2 full rounds of Castellan fire before finally dying.  Patrick was very focused on making sure I could not deep strike anywhere in his deployment, and so had his whole army spread out across the table.  This worked to my advantage because it meant that he had fewer things to block the Castellan and on turn 2 my Deamon Prince charged in and ripped 17 wounds off of it, and thanks to some wounds suffered earlier, left it on 5 wounds.

I think I finished it off with Cultists and Veterans of the Long War.

I brought in the Bloodletters and sent them right after the Grey Knights, which was maybe not the greatest idea, but if they had all died I would be able to bring back that whole squad for 2CP.  They managed to kill Draigo, the Banner, and half the Paladins, so not such a bad move.  Thanks to the work the Bloodletters put in I managed to take the game 18-17.

GAME 3

This game was against Noah, who took the Favourite Opponent award, and for good reason cause he was an awesome guy to play against.  He had a very nicely painted Tau Army made up of a Brigade.  I don't remember exactly what he had, and his list isn't posted, but I got a pic of his army set up on his display board.

Units to note are the Stormsurege, the unit of 10 Breachers that went in the Devilfish, the Riptide and the 2 Broadsides.

For the only time in this tournament, I got the first turn.  So I did what most people do when playing Tau, charge them turn 1.  I moved my red bikes up the right side and the raptors over to the left, and the Daemon Prince right up the middle because...

...That is the Stormsurge on top of that mountain in the middle of the table.  Turn 1 goes pretty well for me, I kill a ton of infantry.  I charge the Broadsides with the bikes and while I nearly get wiped from the Tau overwatch, I manage to make it through and tag one, preventing it from shooting next turn.

My next turn is bat shit crazy and I charge my Daemon Prince into the Stormsurge and promptly die to overwatch.  He rolled two 6's for his big gun to hit, wounded both, and I failed both saves, 12 damage.  Ouch.

I'm not 100% sure how I managed to pull out a win, maybe because I chose the right secondaries, but I came out on top 18-17.

So that was the 3 games from day 1 and I went 3-0.  I was pretty nervous as this is the best I have done in a tournament of this size and was excited to see what kind of game I was going to have tomorrow.

I was also a little worried as despite my 3 wins, I had scored pretty low due to my games only making it to 3 or 4 rounds.  I'm a pretty veteran player and think I'm pretty fast at playing the game but these 3 games gave me some doubts, and one of the last things I wanted was to get called out on slow playing.

GAME 4

I played Jon, and Jon was there to play Warhammer.  That is not to say that he was not a nice guy because he was very nice, but he was far more serious than the other guys I played and had a far more serious army.  He also brought a chess clock, which had me worried due to my last games not finishing and having never used a clock before.  Jon was very understanding and actually took care of the clock for most of the game switching it back and forth, which I appreciated a great deal.  We made it through all 6 turns and we each had about 7 mins to spare, and I didn't feel rushed at any point.  I felt I played at my regular pace as I had through the previous games.

As for the game, this was one of the most intense and competitive games of 40K I have ever played, and even though I lost 31-18, I felt like I could have won if I had made a few different choices.  First up, save the CP for the big Daemon axe and ignored the Knight.  Jon is too good of a player to let me get to grips with it.  I should have moved everything to my right side and pushed harder, bringing in my Daemons there.  I made a few game play mistakes, but I don't think they really determined the result of the game, it was my overall plan that was flawed.

GAME 5

I played another Team Maxx player, Lawrence, and thanks to him I have a newly replenished cup full of rage and hatred for Eldar despite of how nice of a guy Lawrence is.  He had a bunch of Fliers, Rangers, and Hornets, all of which get negatives to hit, and then he took them as the Craftworld that has additional negatives to hit.  To top it off, I chose the absolute worst secondary mission I could have picked.

Have you ever had an idea that you focused on too hard?  So hard that it drove out other reasonable thoughts?  That's what happened to me as I had the thought that if I managed to kill his Hornets and Fliers then I pretty much win the game.  So I chose them for Marked for Death not really taking into consideration how hard they are to kill, and that he doesn't really need to get them anywhere near me to use them effectively.  I could have literally chosen ANY other secondary and done as well or better.  I lost this game 18-17.

It was a frustrating game, not being able to hit anything, until the Bloodletters came in and started doing what they do.  They racked me up a handful of points and dragged this game closer to what it felt like.

So after 5 games I went 3-2 and came in 18th out of 38.  Not too bad, although I was hoping for a 4-1 finish.  I learnt a great deal and I will do another article on that at another time.  For now, I will be jumping into a project that I have been wanting to work on for a while...

NIGHT LORDS!

I would like to thank all of my opponents, the Westman Gaming group as well as the TO's and sponsors.  This was a good event and I can see it getting better and better.  Good luck and I will be attending next year.

Tip next time, keep them dice rollin.

ROAD TO SUCCESS 2.0

I finally got in a couple more practise games, after 5 failed attempts.  I had made some changes to my list after a hand full of realisations, and some new rules.  Since my last game I have had time to peruse the ITC terrain rules a little closer and have learnt that the Wheat City Open will be allowing the use of the Beta Bolter rule.  Wanting to try that out I took a unit of bikes and a unit of terminators, and they did not disappoint.

With that out of the way, lets take a look at my list.  I had a Alpha Legion Battalion Detachment lead by a Lord with Jump pack, combi-bolter and Hydra blade but I'm considering swapping him for a Lord on a bike.  He was my warlord with the extra attack WL trait.  He was backed up in the leadership department by 2 sorcerers.  For troops I had 2 units of 10 Cultists and a unit of 30 cultists.  I had the aforementioned Terminators and bikes, each 5 models.  I gave the bike a couple plasma guns just for kicks, but I was really looking for those combi-bolters, and the terminators had combi-bolters with an assortment of cheaper combat weapons.  I also had a unit of 7 Raptors with 3 plasma guns.  Rounding out that battalion is 2 Hellforged Scorpius tanks, which are really good and expensive whirlwinds.  I had a second battalion that was Daemons, it had a Khorne Herald, Khorne Daemon Prince with the Relic Axe, 2 units of Nurglings and a unit of 24 Bloodletters.

Now before you get on my case I know Raptors are not great, but I really think they have a place in the ITC rules, particularly in my army because they are able to jump through ruins walls and flush out those units hiding inside.  Even as a last resort they are a decent unit to cause some pressure against my opponent and make him deal with them.  The general plan with this army is to use the Cultists and combi-bolter units to open up a hole in the deep strike defence line so the Bloodletters can get in and wreak some havoc.

My opponent, Keenan, was playing a vehicle heavy Guard list with one of the fancy new Vilgilus detachments that allows his tanks within 6" of his warlord to re-roll his failed hit rolls during overwatch.  He had 2 battalions, both of which were Cadia, and I'm not 100 % sure which units were where, but he had Pask and 3 other tank commanders, a company commander and a Priamis Psyker for his HQ.  Then he had 6 units of Guardsmen, 3 units of mortars, 3 basilisks, and 3 manticores.

For my secondary missions I chose butcher's bill, big game hunter, and reaper.  My army does not have a whole lot of anti-tank other than the Daemon Prince, but I figured that 6 of his tanks are rather weak  and I should be able to grind them down especially if the Bloodletters can get into them with their potential of extra damage attacks.

So during deployment I had a dilemma which was; I could either go balls to the walls and hope for first turn, or deploy cagey in case I go second.  His list actually made this decision really hard to make because he had so much that straight up does not care about LOS so typically you would line up on the line because it doesn't really matter where you deploy.  This is when I realised exactly why those damn units of IG mortar teams are so popular.  With the bottom floor of ruins blocking LOS, as per the ITC terrain rules, anything that can target a unit that isn't in LOS is amazing.  However, because he also had 4 tank commanders I can't deploy in the open.  Either way, I'm going to get the shit shelled out of me unless I get the first turn.  I decide to play it careful and deploy as much out of sight as I can.  Which paid off because he got the first turn and I used the Defended Position strat which really came in handy.

This game went all my way, and I don't think I made too many large mistakes this game.  He put some damage in on my Cultists, but not enough to force me to use 2 CP to auto pass.  I used Tide of Traitors, putting my cultists on me left flank, and used Warptime to move the bikes right up the middle.  The cultists wiped a unit and the bikes wiped out a unit and charged a second, able to wrap them up and avoid being shot for a couple turns.  My Scorpius was able to take out 2 of the mortar teams.

Turn 2 was a big one for me.  I deep struck the Bloodletters and was able to charge them into 2 units but pile in and consolidate into a 3rd and wrap it up, keeping them safe.  This also kept my Daemon Prince safe who charged in to 2 tanks turn 3 and started earning me some points.  That pretty much sums up the game.

My second test game was using the same list against Stephen, an AdMech player.  He had 2 Battalions and a cheap Gallant Knight.  Battalion 1 was Stygies and had a big unit of Kastellans and a bunch of Vanguard.  The second Battalion was Ryza and had a small unit of Kastellans with a large unit of Destroyers with plasma and some rangers with sniper rifles.  This game came down to 4 things; the large LOS blocking piece of terrain that I was able to hide behind, my Khorne Deamon Prince killing the Gallant in one round of combat on turn 2, and the Bloodletters killing 3 of the Kastellan robots when they charged through a ruin to avoid overwatch.  Lastly the terminators were able to charge the Destroyers, while doing no damage, it stopped them from shooting on turn 3.

Overall, the bikes were awesome.  I'm not sure that the Terminators are still worth their points as that 5 man unit is 181 points, while a 5 man bike squad is 137 with 2 plasma guns.  What I think I might do is drop the terminators and take another unit of bikes and bump up my cultist squad to 40.

During the second game, we were playing the pointy hammer and anvil deployment, and I should have used the Forward Operatives to deploy the Raptors.  This would have given them a 9" move before the game started allowing me to move into the large ruin in the centre of the table.  From their they would have been safe from any shooting and could have struck out and assassinated several characters that were scattered around the table.

I have noticed a couple things with my list.  I have quite a few units off the table which has it's ups and downs.  On one hand, they can't get shot and killed, on the other, if he pressures my deployment zone I won't have as much return firepower turn 1.  I also have to make sure that I can carve out a gap in the screens so that my deep strikers have somewhere to land.  This will primarily be done with the Bikes, the Cultists who just Tide of Traitors over to the other side of the table, and the Scorpius tanks.

I have made a few changes to my list, and my next post will likely be of the event itself.  Wish me luck, and maybe I'll see you there.

Til next time, keep them dice rollin.