Howdy fellow gamers, Mr.MoreTanks finally brought out of hiding with a win at a great tournament up in the Pacific North West. Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for more great tournament reports.
The Harvester of Souls is one of two Grand Tournaments put on by the Gamer’s Haven game store in Spokane Washington. Run by the nicest guy in the world, Bob Kelley, this store puts nearly every other game store to shame. Beautiful tables with plentiful terrain ensures an awesome time. This event, though ITC, tries to take a more relaxed tone with having a unique mission matching the theme of each different table. Most involving table quarters, objectives, kill points, or old style victory points, with simple fun twists like having a Ork watchtowers worth an extra point if their destroyed. Simple little changes that add a little theme to the board but nothing really game breaking. It was a fun change from constantly playing just the same ITC missions over again while still feeling competitive. Still, with over 50 players and some of the best players in the Pacific Northwest there, I knew that even finishing in the top 5 would be an accomplishment.
I was rocking an Imperial Guard army that I’ve been tweaking and messing with for a while now. Dr. Insanotron and Abuse Puppy helped me play test and suggest units until I came up with something that I was relatively happy with.
550pts. – Armored Battle Group – Combined Arms Detachment
190pts. – HQ.
190pts. – Vanquisher Command Tank, beast hunter shells, co-axil heavy stubber, heavy bolter
360pts. – Troops
60pts. – Armored Fist Squad, autocannon
60pts. – Chimera, autocannon turret
60pts. – Armored Fist Squad, autocannon
60pts. – Chimera, autocannon turret
60pts. – Armored Fist Squad, autocannon
60pts. – Chimera, autocannon turret
1,075pts. – Astra Militarum – Combined Arms Detachment
145pts. – HQ.
145pts. – Commissar Yarrick – WARLORD
620pts. – Troops
30pts. – Platoon Command Squad
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
30pts. – Platoon Command Squad
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
70pts. – Infantry Squad, lascannon
310pts. – Fast Attack
155pts. – Vulture, twin-linked punisher cannons
155pts. – Vulture, twin-linked punisher cannons
225pts. – Space Marines – Librarian Conclave Detachment
Chapter Tactics: White Scars
225pts. – HQ.
95pts. – Librarian, lvl 2, force axe, auspex
65pts. – Librarian, lvl 1, force axe
65pts. – Librarian, lvl 1, force axe
Lots of prescience, ignore cover lascannons combined with punishing autocannons give this list some teeth. The Vultures have quickly become one of my favorite units in the game, I cannot say enough good stuff about these things. I’ll probably never take a Guard list again without them. The Vanquisher keeps things like Centurions, Broadsides, and even Riptides humble and wary with its Instant Death blast that forces players to reroll their successful cover saves. The Conclave helps to keep the blobs out of trouble with Hit & Run and ATSKNF keeps them around.
Round 1: Hammer and Anvil, 5 Objectives – vs. Harlequin Star, scatter bikes, dark reapers, and crimson hunters.
I couldn’t help but laugh when I found out my first round opponent was a good friend of mine who I had actually played the night before in a practice game. Gerry plays more casually now a days, but he’s not to be underestimated.
Hugging cover and hopping the jet bikes back and forth he began chipping away at the blobs while I began trying to kill his jetbikes as quickly as possible. The Harly Star moved up and buffed itself up with all sorts of defense with the 2 Farseers and Shadowseer within it. I ignored it and set to work on basically everything else. My blobs and autocannons dragged down the Crimson Hunters as the Vultures came in and cleaned up the miscellaneous jet bike units left. By this point the blobs were fairly well neutered but my armored fist squads were spread out enough to secure Objectives. The Harly Star connected with the last of my blob and killed off the Libbies and Yarrick who managed to get back up. At this point the game ended with me having 3 Objectives and my opponent having 2 with me securing a few other extra points from the missions’ secondary Objectives. 11/13
Round 2: Dawn of War, 5 Objectives spread into the quarters and the middle – vs. Thunder cav and libbie conclave
Round 2 had me against another good friend, James, who was rocking his beautifully painted Thunder Cav. 3 units made the army quite small, but the ability for the squads to split apart and snag Objectives made me worried. Thankfully I had the second turn and deployed on a counter flank and started laying into his army. The Vultures were his bane as he had no answer to them. He was faced with two options, die by trying to hold Objectives mid field or near me. I was able to spread out the blobs and Chimeras and grab the field. The game ended with him actually having about a third of his army left, but being forced to play defensively was just not a game his army could handle. 12 points put me at 23/26.
Round 3: Vanguard, 4 Objectives w/ 2 in each deployment zone w/ the enemy ones being worth more – vs. Haellforged hunting pack w/ 6 Blood Slaughters and 2 Helldrakes and Brass Scorpion
Damn, with three Hunting packs at this event, I knew there was going to be a good chance of bumping into one of these things. Still, I was not looking forward to fighting one of them. The Brass Scorpion was a serious threat to basically everything in my army, deployment and first turn were going to be important. Thankfully the board was a huge help. Trenches made it so that there wasn’t too much cover for his war machines to hide behind and we both agreed vehicles trying to move over a trench should take a difficult terrain test. This just might save me, but my opponent rolled up first turn and I failed to seize. Well, here we go. His army lurches forward, and to my surprise I learn that Blood Slaughterers actually only move 6 inches a turn. So you’re saying there’s a chance?
My turn I fail to issue any orders, the only time this happens all weekend, but it was probably the most terrifying 12 I’ve ever rolled. My guns manage to peel off merely 3 hull points off the Scorpion. Chump change. The Scorpion rolls into the front blob that I have bubble wrapped the rest of my army. Forewarning and spacing though made sure that only a handful of Guardsmen died and my lascannons and characters were safe. Even the stomps were weak, thankfully. I rolled the Hit & Run and failed. My stomach sank, I was in serious trouble. My opponent had deep struck two of his Slaughterers right in front of my ranks and had 2 Helldrakes floating around too. It was do or die time. My Vultures came in and killed two of Blood Slaughterers and the blob not stuck in combat took down one of the turkeys with a lucking shot. In his turn he charged in a Blood Slaughterer into the same combat, which probably saved me. The scorpion killed so many Guardsmen that it put itself out of combat while the Slaughterer killed a few more. Hit & Run saw my guns and characters escape, ready to gun down the Scorpion. My next turn had my Vultures and one blob bring down the Scorpion and another Slaughterer. The other Helldrake lost his balefamer. By this point, the writing was on the wall and I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I secured a victory. 12 more points for 35/39.
Day one was a success! There were still 6 undefeated players, and lots of nasty Eldar ahead of me. But for now, I was happy to simply catch up with old friends and have a few drinks.
Round 4: Table Quarters, hold the table quarters – vs. Drop Pod Skitarii, Skyhammer Annihilation Force, BA Tactical Marines
My opponent was from the infamous Mugu Legion, a team with a strong hold on the competitive side of the PNW. I deployed my two blobs with the characters and knew that despite the damage his drop was going to do, getting the bottom turn to secure the board would be worth it. The Skyhammer came in turn one as well as all of the Skitarii, and they laid into the first blob. I did my best to space them out to reduce their potential killing range, and managed to have a few lascannons survive. Next turn I kill a unit of Skitarii with my undamaged blob and buff up on psychic defense and prepared for the worst. The rest of his army arrived that turn but thankfully due to a bad scatter I was able to place a tactical squad into an insignificant position.
After taking it on the chin again, and losing the last bit of my first blob, my conclave, Yarrick, and last remnants of their blob were relieved by everything in the reserves bar one Armored Fist squads. My army laid into the devastators and Skitarri left. The Conclave and Yarrick pushed up and assaulted another tactical squad killing them. By now I had board control and had neutered his army. I proceeded to kill off everything but a handful of drop pods and secured a bloody and a maximum victory. 13 points gave me 48/52.
Round 5: Dawn of War, Victory Points – vs. Adeptus Mechanicus Warconvocation
This is about as old school as it gets. I was very happy to see this Warconvocation was not filled with Drop Pods, so I felt like I had a pretty good chance. My units are relatively cheap points wise, and the mission special rule had his “free” upgrades count towards victory points. He deployed everything and I castled up against him on a flank with my blobs, thinking to protect my tanks in reserve. I was struck by a thought of premonition, I was going to Seize the Initiative on him. I don’t know why the thought was so strong in my head, but it was. So I deployed all of my tanks. He asked me if I wanted to Seize, and I told him to count on it. I rolled a 5 and he groaned as his LOW gave me +1.
Lascannons and autocannons opened up and took out the Knight. The explosion killed a Kataphron unit as well. The Vanquisher opened fire and killed one of his Dunecrawlers and the occupants of the Chimeras killed a unit of Infiltrators. I was feeling pretty damn confident at this point, the wind was out of his sales. His turn saw him cracking open a Chimera and had his other unit of Sicarans make combat with the blob. They were killed by Yarrick’s powerfist and the conclave. Free to pour out more firepower, the blob knocked out the last Dunecrawler and the Vultures came in and began cleaning up any infantry squads unlucky enough to be in their way. The autocannons finished off the dragoons and the Kataphrons. By turn three, all he had left was his Dominus who was forced to continuously go to ground for the 2+ invulnerable save. We called it at that and I scored another max victory, finishing the event with 61/65 points.
The other undefeated table next to us had a brutal game that had Abuse Puppy suffer from some seemingly unbelievable dice rolls. He may do a write up on that, but he managed to deny his opponent, the infamous Alex Yuen max points, which secured Best General for me, and first place in terms of the ITC. I also snagged best IG player at the event. Bob is extremely generous with the prize support and I walked out with a $150 store gift card that turned into 30 more Skitarii for me, giving me 60. Expect to see them out in the not too distant future.
So thinking over my performance, I have to note a few things that I feel contributed to my victory that were beyond just my skill or my list building (which was a team effort), first off, I did not ever have to face a Wraithknight. Now, I think my list could deal with one, but it would probably be bloody and a pain. Second, I didn’t a list with 4 or 5 Knights, without meltabombs in the blobs, they’re very vulnerable to big nasty mech suits with Stomp. This may be a big problem in the future and I’ll likely need some test games in against Knights to see how I can handle them. Third, is that I didn’t have to play any mission that required my units to be mobile and put my units in harms way. While I do have three Armored Fist Squads to throw away at Malestorm Objectives and the like, but still at 120pts. each, they’re pretty expensive to just throw away.
All these things considered though, I really love this list and think with some more practice it can do very well in some more events. I think the core aspects of the list are pretty much set, but I may need to make some changes depending on the impact of the new Tau. I’m also eager to get a game in against a Gladius, I feel pretty confident that this list could take most of them out there, though the Scouring may be a tricky mission. I definitely want to get some more games with this army in against a wider variety of opponents using more ITC missions.
So in closing, the tournament was a blast, and it was great to see some of my best buds again. I’m looking forward the upcoming Guardian Cup in November with Capt A, if I don’t see you there, hopefully I’ll see you at TSHFT in January!