ROAD TO SUCCESS

There is a big ITC tournament coming up in February called the 40K Wheat City Open and I have decided that I want to do well at this event.  So that means practise.  Before we get to that though, lets take a look at a list I've started with, and some of the challenges I will have to face.

So I have decided to go mainly with Chaos Space Marines, and with a Death Guard for flavour.  Now I won't bore you with a detailed list, because I'm still testing out the list, but I will talk about what I want each unit to do.  I'll start off with a Lord, a Sorcerer, and a Warpsmith, follow that up with some small units of Cultists.  I'm thinking of marking the Lord Khorne and giving him "the Axe" and a combi-melta, this lets him attack twice if he really wants.  I know cultists went up in points, but 10 bodies for 50 points still isn't that bad, and I need some sort of bubble wrap and objective holders.  I have them backed up by Chosen with combi-bolters and 2 Contemptor Dreads with 2 butcher cannons.  The Chosen are only 80 points and can put out 7 S4 attacks each if they charge, and if I mark them Slaanesh I can shoot twice with them.  The Dreads put out 8 S8 D2 shots each that hit on 2's, 3's if they move, but there is a strat that lets them ignore that penalty.  If I mark them Nurgle I can get them an additional -1 to hit.  Here is where things get sketchy because I have a Landraider and 2 units of Raptors with 3 meltaguns (one is a combi-melta on the champ although I'm thinking of switching them all to plasma).  Each Raptor unit is only 113 points and the Landraider is now under 300.  Again I will likely mark the Raptors Slaanesh so they can shoot twice.  All that is using the Alpha Legion trait for the -1 to hit if more than 12" away.  I have a second detachment of Death Guard that consists of a Daemon Prince with 2 Bloat Drones with death spitters and a third with the flesh mower.

Since this will be one of the first big tournaments of the ITC season, potentially a Major, there will likely be some of the typical big lists there that I will have to deal with.  I expect to see some Ynnari with Shining Spears, or 2, moving twice and a big unit of Dark Reapers shooting twice.  Now this army is primarily focused on tearing me a new one so I expect it to move hard against me, maybe double moving one or both Spear units for a turn 1 charge.  Deployment is going to be important, and in this case I may not want to put the Raptors in reserves so I can use them to counter attack on turn 1 joined with the Bloat Drones and Prince.  Splitting up is not smart, but castling up isn't either.  That allows them to either pick me apart piecemeal or all at once.  Staying close together so I can support other aspects of my army and proper bubble wrap will be important.

Of course we have Knights, which I really don't like to think about.  I can handle a Knight or 2, I have enough S8 attacks that do multiple damage and I have fairly durable units.  The Raptors are more likely to go into reserve in this game as the range and size of the Knights will make it harder to hide them and the Cultists will pull move blocker duty.  I think I will want to spread out a little more in this game, many of the Knight Warlord traits are aura effects, which they can't get if they spread out to engage me.  Death Hex is going to be pretty damn critical here, which makes me think I need Arhiman for that +1 to cast.  I could make room for him in an Auxiliary support detachment, but then I think I need to figure out how to get a second battalion instead of an outrider.

Then there are Orks, easily over 150 bodies that need to be eliminated.  Some of them are jumping at me 30 at a time, others are shooting me with autocannons, others are running up the table at me.  There will be a handful of off the cuff stuff like Deffkoptas and mek guns that I will have to be aware of.  I'm not too terribly worried about the boys, I have the Chosen and the 2 Bloat Drones that can handle them as they come at me.  My biggest worry is the Lootas and all the Grots I have to get through to get to them.  I have a thought on this, there will likely be a unit of 15 and a unit of 10, which will allow them to Mob Up right away.  If I get the first turn, I need to bring both of those units down to under 10 models they won't be able to.  How I do that is to put some firepower into the smaller unit and let him play Grot Shields, there is a good chance I will get one Loota bringing the unit to 9.  Once I accomplish that I switch to the other unit and hit it with everything else until it's down to 9.  Now I don't have a lot of firepower to actually do this, so it might be a flawed plan, I will let you know after some practise.

Those are my initial thoughts, I will get in a couple games and do some thinking and see what comes of it.  If you have any advice, feel free to let me know.  Keep in mind though that I am a terribly slow painter and won't have time to paint a ton of models.  So drastically changing my list might not really be much of an option.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.