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Militarum Tempestus Broadside Bash Tournament Report

Reecius

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Here’s my tournament report from the Broadside Bash Major ITC Event using Militarum Tempestus! Check the Tactics Corner for more great tournament reports!

Frankie and his Tau who dang near won the whole thing!

Another Broadside Bash has come and gone, year 9, actually. What a great milestone for them! The event was great though, laid back, fun with some beautiful terrain and armies to be seen. The event used a slightly modified ITC format, with a different scoring system for the missions and no ITC scenario 2 (the Relic), with combined Sportsmanship and Appearance scores. The games were 2,000pts and we actually noted that everyone was finishing games right on time. It was pretty rare to see a game not finish, which was very interesting. I think a lot of it was the smaller room size and the easy logistics of actually moving around the hall.

Petey Pab, with his Battle Company +Warp Spiders

The event was a blast, but some constructive critiques: please just bury the antiquated sportsmanship system. It objectively does not function in the manner in which it was designed to work. When you score your opponent based on how much you enjoyed the game, you open the door to abuse. You are actually creating a system in which the nice players get punished, which is the opposite of what you want to happen.

Why is this, you may ask? When everyone defaults to giving max sportsmanship scores to their opponent (which is the default) the guys who do not give max scores (for whatever reason), you put the power to hurt other players’ ability to win the event in the hands of their opponent. The player who gets dinged on sports has no ability to control what’s going on. It’s just not a good system and has largely been abandoned in tournament play, for the better, IMO. A simple thumbs up, thumbs down system to handle poor sportsmanship is all that is needed. Last critique: give us some more space, please! The tables were very close together, and it was a little too cramped. But, enough about that, like I said, the event was a blast! It was great to hang out with friends, drink some beers, enjoy the Convention and play some 40k. The staff did a great job with the event and we are happy for all their hard work.

Also, the ITC tournament app created by the Best Coast Pairings team worked flawlessly! It is such an awesome tool to help run tournaments and make it easy and stress-free for the TO.

Coop Juice…some scrub who plays for a new team, now =P

Here’s my list:

Militarum Tempestus 2000pts
Stormtrooper CAD Description Size Cost
Command Squad P.Gun x 4 5 145
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions Flamer x 2 5 80
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions P.Gun x 2 5 100
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions M.Gun x 2, M.Bombs 5 95
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions M.Gun x 2 5 90
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions M.Gun x 2 5 90
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Scions M.Gun x 2 5 90
Taurox Prime Missiles 1 100
Assassin Detachment
Culexus – 1 140
Knight Detachment
Knight Crusader Battle Cannon, Stormspear 1 470
Totals – 44 2000
Converted “Plasma” Bolters: count as Plasma Guns.

So a very straightforward list. It runs and guns, and that’s pretty much it! I have a lot of high strength, mobile shooting, a lot of ObSec, and the ability to shut down psychic powers if I play the Culexus well. The Knight can get busy in combat if needs be and hope for some lucky Stomps, but otherwise my army is a shooty list. Also, it plays VERY fast. My games all went to a natural conclusion and 3 games ended on 6, the other 2 on 7. I never had an issue with time which isn’t too surprising as I basically only function in the movement and shooting phase!

Also, if you like the wheel conversions on my Taurox, I did that with a conversion kit made by Blood and Skulls, which you can snag, here.

Round 1

Rad list! I had never seen the Battlegroup Hammerblow on the field before, it is a cool formation. It’s pretty dang big, but, it gives all of the infantry in it ObSec, the Leman Russ and the Baneblade are twin linked when firing at a target within 12″ of another unit from the formation, and the Scions must begin the game embarked on the Valk, but it can come in turn 1 via Deep Strike, and doesn’t scatter when it does so if it arrives within 12″ of the Scout Sentinel. Pretty cool! Normally Baneblades are pretty underwhelming but when the beast is twin linked, it gets pretty nasty, pretty quick.

I got first turn and my opponent opted to reserve everything apart from the Sentinel, which he hid. My first turn I moved into better position and picked up some Maelstrom points, but had no targets to shoot! He Dropped the Valk in and it didn’t scatter thanks to the Sentinel’s formation benefit. My turn 2, my reserves started deep-striking in and the game actually began. I took out the Scout Sentinel quite easily but fired my entire army at the Valk and rolled no 6’s apart from one plucky Scion who hucked a Krak Grenade into the Valk and managed to glance it. Nice arm there, champ! While I had done almost no damage to my opponent I had board control and had Scions all over his Emperor’s Will Objective. I also decided it would be smart to play aggressive with my Knight and advanced into his deployment zone, thinking I’d be able to shoot and assault units like a boss! Turned out to be a really stupid idea…

Because Pask came on the table and opened up on the Knight with 20 rending, tank hunting shots, 2 M.Melta shots and a Las Cannon…holy crap! I forgot about that, lol. So, the Knight didn’t last long…doh!

That put me on my back foot but luckily the Baneblade didn’t come on the table turn 2, allowing me to recover from my blunder. I dropped a Melta Squad near Pask and his buddy to harass them and they were able to take the tanks out eventually, between Melta shots and krak Grenades in melee. The Culexus was a chief too, running through unit after unit and eventually taking out the Leman Russ Punisher with mind bullets in the rear armor! I was also able to keep stacking Maelstrom points before the big guy came on the table and unleashed hell!

For the Emperor!!

Man, that thing was a BEAST! Being twin linked when firing on close targets was awesome, and it was bristling with guns. The Baneblade singlehandedly took out most of my army, haha. With the Knight gone, I was fielding nothing but very squishy units. However, I had a big lead on Maelstrom and my opponent was struggling to clear me off of his Emperor’s Will objective. He Tank Shocked several units onto the board, trying to clear me off of it, but I Death or Glory’d and took most of them out with Melta Guns. Once out of their metal boxes, the Scion’s superior stats made short work of the Guardsmen.

The Baneblade though, managed to plow its way across the board the take my Emperor’s Will objective in turn 6 as the last brave Taurox holding it got blown up =(

In the end, a super fun game. I played my Knight like a total fool and it almost cost me the game. Had the Baneblade come on the board turn 2, I may have lost, but the dice were kind and I had a turn to recover which allowed me to seal the win with the Maelstrom and bonus points.

Stormshadow, my loyal ninja assassin! a Culexus for now.

Round 2

Yours truly, playing against Salamanders Battle Company.

My round 2 opponent was none other than Mr. Vince Wiebert, a very skilled opponent with a beautiful Salamanders Battle Company. I knew this would be a very tough game as a bunch of twin linked meltas is not a nice match-up for a vehicle heavy army.

I won the roll to go first and had some tough decisions to make. I considered going full null deploy but I didn’t want to risk not getting units on the table and coming in piece meal where Vince would easily take me apart. I also didn’t want first turn as I knew he’d simply null deploy and take a round of shooting away from me. I fell back to some tried and true anti deep-strike tactics: turtle in the corner! When facing an army like this it is often best to present them with a limited number of sacrificial units who protect the units behind them in order to minimize the amount of damage you take and maximize your counter punch.

Also, as the mission was Kill Points primary, I was willing to trade 1 Taurox for a Drop Pod+unit inside. I was giving up on Maelstrom from the word go and was focusing on winning Kill Points, and getting as many bonus points as I could.

The game was progressing as I had hoped, with me staying ahead on KP and the Salamanders winning Maelstrom by a mile. However, I absolutely needed Warlord to have a chance at winning. I threw–literally–everything I had at Vulkan but 6 of 6 units I deep-struck near his Rhino to pop it scattered out of range to do anything…doh! On top of that, every shot I sent at that damned Rhino bounced, even the entire payload of the Knight Crusader. So frustrating, lol.

As the game wound down, I was desperately trying to get Warlord and Vince got wise to my plan and was pulling Vulkan away. Then, my Tempestor Prime and Co. finally decided to join the battle turn 5 (they misshaped back into ongoing reserves every single turn, lol) and used their twin link order+4 Plasmas to finally destroy the invincible Rhino (and importantly, exploding it) leaving the unit in a clump right in the Knight’s cross hairs! He took the shot and double hit with the Battle Cannon, wiping out the entire unit and netting me Warlord! If the game ends, I actually win!

But, it does not…womp, womp! It goes to 6 and Vince easily wipes out my Warlord who is in the open, to secure Warlord for himself and tie the game which is where we ended. All things considered, I was happy with a tie considering how poor of a match up it was and that my dice were stone cold in the middle turns. I came close to stealing victory but it wasn’t meant to be. Great game, Vince!

Round 3

Yeesh, another tough game with a skilled opponent. This time Thomas who is one of our painters, formerly of Blue Table Painting, and his very awesome pre-heresy Emperor’s Children army.

I actually felt a great deal more confident in this game as Thomas was all Razorbacks and Rhinos and the deployment was Hammer and Anvil, which would play to the strengths of my Taurox’ superior firepower and range. However, Thomas is a good player and chose to outflank pretty much everything apart from his Scouts and Bikestar. Bummer. That would give him the ability to beta strike me out of reserves. Luckily, I had rolled up the Infiltrate Warlord trait which let me do the same thing with 4 of my 7 Taurox.

My Tempestor Prime: just drippin with swagger!

Now, had I played smarter than I did, I could have very easily been in the superior board position on turn 2 when reserves started coming in. Instead, I made a major mental error turn 1 that severely cost me.

Thomas wisely was wary of my Culexus and firepower, as the two combined could easily make short work of his Bikestar. However, I foolishly put the Culexus in a Taurox that I repositioned onto an objective in the back corner of the table, which left me open to a bum rush from said Bikestar. However, I got lucky and Thomas kept rolling up the Maelstrom objective that kept him in his back corner to wrack up those points. However, by splitting my Taurox into the corners to go for Maelstrom points, I left myself vulnerable to the Outflanking forces who came on and easily mauled the soft targets. That was dumb with a capital D. I got neither maelstrom point and gave up two of my critical offensive assets for no gain. Plus, Thomas’ opening shot with some single tapping Scouts had luckily taken down a Taurox, too, lol, so I was down 3 without anything to show for it.

My reserves came in outflanking behind his and the real fight began. We were trading shots but Thomas’ dice were hotter than mine. The only thing that was keeping me in the fight was the Knight, who was wracking up kills like they were going out of style.

As the game wore on, I was able to stay in the game on Maelstrom because I kept going for 3 kills and getting it! That came to a grinding halt though when I tried to go for three objectives and failed to get it, killing my chances of winning Maelstrom.  The death knell though, was when my command squad mishapped (again! Gah, every single game) and Thomas placed them right next to his star, where they promptly got eaten giving him Warlord and humorously, Big Game Hunter. That sealed the deal as there was no way I was getting either Warlord or Big Game hunter as his star was effectively invincible to my shooting. The best I could do was mitigate my loss and I focused on tying the primary which I was able to do by grinding through his MSU units on both flanks to secure high point objectives. Looking back, I think we forgot to count Fast Attack kills as I had taken out Assault Squads and their Rhinos so I may have actually won the primary, but I still would have lost the game, but by less points. Don’t forget the mission!

My Culexus and Knight were the all stars, just doing work all game. The Taurox should have been amazing, but I was rolling ice cubes and just couldn’t do any damage to the Rhinos and Razorbacks until the end of the game when my dice finally came to life but a bit too late.

At any rate, I took my loss and prepared for day two. Good game as always with Thomas who is a gentleman and great opponent.

Round 4

What an awesome list! Also, it scared the pants off of me, lol. This is a list that has the ability to just run right through my army. Wulfen hit incredibly hard and the Land Raiders in the formation can ignore the entire damage table apart from Explodes! results, so are almost assured of getting across the table. This could be a brutal match-up and I would have to focus on winning the mission to have any chance.

My opponent made a critical error: he gave me first turn. He should have taken it for himself and bum rushed me, but he decided to give me the initiative. I then spread out and pulled away, shooting everything I had but not doing too much to AV14 apart form a few hull points. I threw a bait Taurox off to one flank, going the full 24″ up the side hoping he’d chase after it and he did, breaking up his Land Raiders to take out the Taurox. Nice! One less Land raider to have to deal with in the same turn.

The other lucky break for me came in turn 2 when I dropped 3 units into his backfield to kill his Vindicaire and threaten his rear objective. He then broke off a second Land Raider to deal with them (easily wiping them all out in a multi-assault) but then reducing the amount of threats I had to deal with to 1 Land Raider with Wulfen in a single turn. Unfortunately, that was still enough to cripple me with a good multi-assault! I had 2 Melta Scion units left to deal with it before it was on me, one scattered out of range, the other landed in melta range…doe or die time! The brave bastards gave a prayer to the emperor and let loose with their meltas and did what they came to do and blew the thing sky high! That was just the chance I needed and the rest of my army unleashed everything they had on the Wulfen which combined with cold saves on my opponent’s part, left them all dead and the pressure was off. I was then able to focus fire on each Land Raider, taking them all out and leaving the Wulfen stranded, trying to walk across the table into my gun line, which was not going to work. I think he should have kept his army together and bum rushed me. He would risk losing the Maelstrom, but would almost assuredly have destroyed everything I had in my backfield. Either way, it was a fun game with a great opponent. Thanks for the game, Don!

Scions win!

Round 5

What a cool list! I really dug it. Sisters of Battle have a reputation for being weak but I seriously do not buy it. They have a ton going for them: mobility, ObSec, cool special rules, plenty of firepower and an awesome Warlord in Celestine. Toss in a few allies and you’ve got yourself a stew, baby!

But anyway, an interesting list. Normally I would say Penitent Engines are not the best choice but in an MTO list like this, they fall way down on the priority scale. They actually performed well in the early and mid game turns, taking out my Deep Strikers as they came in until I could focus on them with my Taurox fire power. My opponent said they had been performing well all tournament which I thought was awesome.

But, the real battle was won and lost in deployment. My opponent made the mistake of deploying over a broad front, allowing me to counter-deploy in a forced flank. This allowed me to focus all of the force of my army on a portion of his and chew my way through it from one end to the other. As with my last game, my dice came alive in this game and the Taurox were just murder machines. They and the Knight managed to eat up most of my opponent’s mobility while my Scions fought his infantry in a bloody battle. I think the early momentum on my part discouraged my opponent from playing more aggressively which could have gotten him back in the game with some luck. Instead he played defensively but I already had the firepower advantage and pressed it. Interestingly though, despite my winning the fight, we were tied on both primary and secondary missions until turn 6, where I pulled ahead on both. Had the game ended on turn 5, I would have only won via bonus points. My opponent did a good job of keeping the mission in mind even while picking up models left and right, which was impressive.

In the end though, my deployment and board position advantage allowed me to pull the victory.

Geoff “InControl” Robinson thinking reallly hard in his game!

Closing Thoughts:

What a great tournament! We had a blast. Thanks to the KingdomCon and Broadside Bash crew for all the hard work in putting it on. Our team (Team Zero Comp) kicked butt, too, winning Best Overall, Best Sportsman and boasting the top ITC finisher, too! It was a fun, laid back event with some great opponents. I really enjoyed playing my Scion army and am happy with a 12th place finish out of 64 players. I think they are a bit too simple for the complex meta we play in now to justify bringing to a GT where travel was involved if you’re hoping to win it all. I think they’re great for RTTs and super fun to play! If you want an army that you can win best of in the ITC, try Scions out! They are fun and while you may not win a big event, you will enjoy yourself and your opponent will have a unique play experience, too.

The army also plays super quick. Even at 2K points, all of my games finished early. It was like 5th ed in some cases, just moving the tanks and the Knight. My Scions would deep-strike in, shoot something and then either get mulched or hunker down on an objective, so the movement phase was simple. No psychic phase and essentially no assault phase meant that I zipped through those and the shooting phase was all that took much thought, really. It was refreshing to play such a simple, straight forward army.

Big winner, chicken dinner James Carmona with his Chaos army!

If I were to change anything, I would add an Inquisitor with Servo Skulls to both hold back Scout moves and Infiltrators, to help bring my boys in accurately via Deep Strike onto objectives but also to make the Inquisitor my Warlord. The Tempestus Prime died every single game, lol! I gave up Warlord 100% of the time. That really hurt me in several games.

With some more practice, I think I could have won both games I lost and tied, for sure. Not to say my opponents didn’t equal my skill level, they totally did, but the games weren’t unwinnable despite all of the advantages Battle Company get. I think the army would do quite well against Eldar with proper terrain and only Tau really scare me as my army would struggle to deal with Riptides. Even a Deathstar could be tackled if I played the Culexus correctly and timed a full strength punch the turn I took away their buffs. Plus, I am totally getting into the fluff of the Scions. They’re not super, genetically enhanced, psychic, monster warriors, just regular humans with some brass balls and a will to win. I dig it!

Thanks for reading! My Scion army was painted by the Frontline Gaming paint studio for anyone interested in getting their army painted by us.

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