Hello everyone, Frankie here to talk about the Know no Mercy GT which I participated in this past weekend. Check the Tactics Corner for more great tournament reports!
So the Know no Mercy GT took place in Sacramento CA at Great Escape Games which is an amazing store. It was an ITC event and used two Nova Missions, two ITC missions, and two book missions. 1850 points and you could bring anything that was 40k approved such as a Warhound Titan, 5 Wraithknights, and come the apocalypse allies. Some other changes from our format were: no change to Invisibility, 2+ re-roll able saves allowed, no ranged D change, and lastly, any number/combination of formations or detachments as long as the army is Battle Forged.
My List:
| HQ | ||
| Khan | Moondraken | 1 |
| Chaplain | Bike, Auspex, Melta Bomb | 1 |
| Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor | Power Armor, Servo Skull x3 | 1 |
| Troops | ||
| Tactical Squad | melta, Grav Cannon | 10 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Tactical Squad | melta, Grav Cannon | 10 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Tactical Squad | melta, Grav Cannon | 10 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Tactical Squad | melta, Grav Cannon | 10 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Tactical Squad | melta | 5 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Tactical Squad | melta | 5 |
| Droppod | _ | 1 |
| 10th Company Task Force | ||
| Scouts | _ | 5 |
| Scouts | _ | 5 |
| Scouts | _ | 5 |
| Fast Attack | ||
| Space Marine Bikes | Grav x2, Combi-Grav, Melta Bomb | 3 |
| Attack Bike | Multi Melta | 1 |
| Heavy Support | ||
| Devastators | Grav Cannon x2 | 5 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
| Devastators | Grav Cannon x2 | 5 |
| Rhino | Dozer Blade | 1 |
Round 1 the Mission is straight up rule book Kill Points with First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker. Well this should be the toughest game for me this weekend let’s hope I get someone with a lot of kill points as my army has a ton.
I walk up to the table and look down at a Centurion star with a Imperial Knight… Well there is no way I am going to win this one, haha. We roll off and he gives me first turn…interesting choice. I decide to deploy everything on the line and try for an alpha strike or at least get better board position than reserving. He deploys on his line as well and mentions my scout move, I agree and tell him everything is White Scars. He leaves everything on the line which I am confused about. I scout forward my 12″ due to the Rhinos/Bikes and the Scouts get within 12″. His eyes get a little larger when he sees how close my army is to his and realizes he has made a big mistake. He tries to seize but unfortunately doesn’t get the 6. I bring the thunder and am able to kill all of the Centurions and one of the Librarians with my Grav and Scouts, thank you Auspex! He is so thrown back by the alpha strike and how bad his deployment was he forfeits the game, it was pretty brutal. We talk to the judge and end up playing 2 more turns where he is able to kill quite a few rhinos with his Crusader knight and I am able to kill the Knight and the rest of his star. We call it at this point and end up laughing about all of it and having a great time discussing possible other outcomes. Battle Company Victory, 1000 points. No other points as typical with the ITC, just the straight 1K. Boy did I get lucky in this game!
Round 2 the Mission is Nova style Scouring with all sorts of options on secondaries.
I pull a Thunderwolf star with the Librarian Conclave, Dante, and a Sanguinary Priest. Looks very similar to the list I played against at Nova. Luckily I’ve played these missions before and am able to choose well on secondaries. He rolls up his powers with his three Librarians and unfortunately doesn’t get anything good. All of them rolled on Telepathy and he didn’t roll Invisibility or Shrouding. I won the roll to go first and gave it to my opponent in hope of grabbing objectives on the last turn. He only has one troop and it isn’t obsec so I decide to outflank my scouts, and Attack Bike (which he marked for death as one of his secondary mission choices) and deploy everything else. I split my army evenly on two sides of the terrain blocking the center of the table, so that he will have to make choices.
His turn one he drops his single Drop Pod in his back field (which is my marked for death target) and makes a move towards my 4 Rhinos at the top of the board. My turn I use a Devastator Doctrine since both Devastator units are in range of the star. My Droppod drops right next to his in an attempt to blow up his with the Tactical Squad inside. Unfortunately they only do one hull point to it. All my Grav shooting into his star is able to kill one Wolf Guard Battle leader and bring two more down to one wound. Not half bad.
His turn two he moves forward and continues the poor rolling taking, two wounds on dangerous terrain. He charges into my rhinos and ends up killing three of them quite easily. On my turn my dice go hot and I end up killing 1 librarian, and 2 Wolf Guard Battle Leaders, bringing his star down to a Wolf Lord with 2 wounds, 2 Iron Priests, and one Thunderwolf Calvary. WOW!! His turn he breaks apart the star and the poor rolls continue for him, unfortunately. Dante dies to overwatch, 1 Librarian also goes down due to perils. He kills a few units but then I hit and run out of combat. The game is basically over at this point but we keep playing. He was a great opponent and never got down on his dice. I would happily play him again and had a great time. Battle Company win 1019. This mission did generate extra mission points, unlike the first round.
Round 3 this is the final game for day one and is an ITC mission: Emperor’s will. I should know how to play this one, haha. I pull a local guy that comes to all of our events and always has a blast. He is playing double Dark Angel Battle Company. Well this is going to be tough but I think with all my shooting I should be able to hang. He has 20 free transports, haha min-max to the MAX! Not very many special weapons, just two Multi-Meltas.
We roll off and he makes me go first. Darn, I really wanted the last chance to jump on the objectives in this mission. Oh well, I deploy split again but mostly next to the Emperor’s Will objective. He deploys split as well with 6 of his Razorbacks. I scout forward and get ready to kill all those Razorbacks! My first turn I don’t pop any doctrines and land the Drop Pod right next to one of the Razorbacks. I am able to kill 3 Razorbacks and Immobilize 2 more. I also kill two units that hop out of the Rhinos.
His turn he brings in 6 Drop Pods. Haha, wow the table is now covered in pods. He drops them all around. He puts a lot of Bolter shots into my Bike unit dealing two wounds to Khan and one to my Chaplain. He also rolls a 6 to hit with his Multi Melta on my Drop Pod and kills it in one shot. Haha, well darn.
My Turn two I get ready to assault a bunch of his units. I also pop a Tactical Doctrine so that I have better chances of dealing the damage I need to. I shoot a bunch of Grav into his Chaplain unit that just dropped in thinking it was his Warlord. Unfortunately I was mistaken and those were wasted shots. I ended up killing another Razorback and dealing two hull points to two Drop Pods. I get ready to charge into his three units of Marines with Khan and he then informs me his army fires over watch at full BS. HAHA! I wish I could have seen my face at this point. I still charge the three units and luckily only lose one Biker. Khan does some damage as does the Chaplain. I win combat and one of his units runs away and I cannot catch it because I’m locked in combat. Oh well, that kind of worked.
This games goes on like this for five turns, he covers the board in Marines and Pods and I try to clear all the marines out around my Rhinos. Unfortunately he pulled ahead on Maelstrom on one turn and I need the game to go on to have a chance. Anther funny thing is all of his units only cost 70 points so he got Big Game Hunter after killing one Grav unit. Anyway, we rush through turn five and time is called. Darn, I might have been able to get him if I had one more turn. He was able to kill my Rhino that was on his Home objective and I was able to hit and run for Line Breaker. Great game and very close. Battle Company lose…to Battle Companies! 1-1006.
I’m going to break this into a two part article. The second day they broke the people off that had loses and had us all play in an RTT. We shall see how I do on day two! In the actual GT Geoff Incontrol played against Steve Sisk in the finals and had a very close and well played game. Steve ended up winning and Geoff took best overall due to paint score. Great job Steve and Geoff you guys are lucky you dodged me haha. Super fun event and would recommend making the trip next year if you get the chance.