Chandler’s Warzone Atlanta 2017 Recap

Hey, everyone, Chandler here to give you guys a recap on the biggest party in 40k, Warzone Atlanta.

Warzone Atlanta is now in its 3rd year and is quickly becoming one of the most popular events in 40k.  The event was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend.  With a field of 110 players it is one of the largest events in the Southeastern U.S. and is now officially an ITC Major event.

I should preface this article by noting that Warzone is unlike many other major Grand Tournaments in that there is a very strong emphasis on competitive play, hobbying and sportsmanship as a combined experience.  They use a combination of your total battle points accrued through the event, your overall paint score determined via their painting rubric, and peer “favorite opponent” votes to determine your sportsmanship score which all combine into a formula to determine the overall placings in the event. On top of that they offer tons of prize support and a unique challenge called the bounty board, which is a collection of “bounties” created by the players and event staff to reward players for meeting certain conditions in a game. All of these factors combine into an amazing and one of a kind event.

There were some gorgeous armies on display for their Armies on Parade and it was tough to pick a vote for Best Painted. This is just a small sample of some of the amazing armies that were on display:

Best Painted went to Luke Slothower for the 2nd year in a row for his gorgeous looking Space Wolves:

Everything kicked off on Friday night with a super heavy only Apocalypse game which featured some awesome looking Titans. On top of that there was a 1250 point team RTT event, an X-Wing event, and various other pick-up games.  Some of the Titans on display for the Apoc game were incredibly impressive!

I decided to break out my Tzeentch Daemons Chaos list for the event. This is an army I’ve been working on for the last year or so and I was pretty confident it would do well at the event.  The list was as follows:

Robert Chandler – 2000 Points Warzone Atlanta 2017 – Tzeentch Daemons Brigade

Chaos Brigade Detachment – 9 CP – 95 Power
HQ:
[PL 5] The Changeling [100] (Psychic Powers: Bolt of Change) – 100
[PL 9] CSM Daemon Prince with wings [170], Malefic Talon Pair [10], Warp Bolter [9], Mark of Tzeentch
(Psychic Powers: Diabolic Strength) – 189
[PL 9] CSM Daemon Prince with wings [170], Hellforged Sword [10], Warp Bolter [9], Mark of Tzeentch
(Psychic Powers: Warptime) – 189
Troops:
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
[PL 5] Horrors: 5x Blue [25], 5x Brimstone [15] – 40
Elite:
[PL2] Renegade Enforcer [30], Autogun [0], Frag Grenades [0], Brutal Assault Weapon [0] – 30
[PL2] Renegade Enforcer [30], Autogun [0], Frag Grenades [0], Brutal Assault Weapon [0] – 30
[PL2] Renegade Enforcer [30], Autogun [0], Frag Grenades [0], Brutal Assault Weapon [0] – 30
Fast Attack:
[PL 2] Chaos Spawn [33] ,No Mark, Hideous Mutations [0] – 33
[PL 2] Chaos Spawn [33] ,No Mark, Hideous Mutations [0] – 33
[PL 2] Chaos Spawn [33] ,No Mark, Hideous Mutations [0] – 33
Heavy Support:
[PL 5] Burning Chariot [98], Fire of Tzeentch [0], Slashing Talons [0]. Lamprey Bites [0] – 98
[PL 5] Burning Chariot [98], Fire of Tzeentch [0], Slashing Talons [0]. Lamprey Bites [0] – 98
[PL 10] Obliterators x3 [195], Fleshmetal Guns [0], Mark of Tzeentch – 195
[PL 10] Obliterators x3 [195], Fleshmetal Guns [0], Mark of Tzeentch – 195

Supreme Command Detachment – 1 CP – 33 Power
HQ
[PL 4] Malefic Lord [30], Bare Hands [0], (Psychic Powers: Creeping Terror, Warp Flux) – 30
[PL 4] Malefic Lord [30], Bare Hands [0], (Psychic Powers: Creeping Terror, Warp Flux) – 30
[PL 4] Malefic Lord [30], Bare Hands [0], (Psychic Powers: Creeping Terror, Warp Flux) – 30
Lord of War:
[PL 21] Magnus the Red [415], (Psychic Powers: Death Hex, Warptime, Weaver of Fates) Warlord:
Tenacious Survivor – 415

Total Points – 1998
Total Power – 128
Total Command Points – 13
Faction – Chaos

Round 1:

There were a ton of Chaos lists at the event with over 30 on display which delighted my black heretic heart naturally. Round 1 would see me face off against Nick Moran and his Tzeentch Magnus army. Nick’s army was amazing with tons of conversion work it was truly a beautiful army. His list was very similar to mine with 2 daemon princes, Magnus, some Malefic Lords, horrors and The Changeling. He also had an Alpha Legion detachment with Chaos Cultists, 2 Heldrakes, a Bike Sorcerer and a squad of Slaanesh Chaos Bikers with Flamers. The Primary Mission had 4 objectives; one in each player’s deployment zone and 2 in the neutral zone. These were end-game objectives with the one in your opponent’s deployment zone being worth 7 points, the one in your own zone being worth 1 victory point, the neutral zone objective closest to your table half worth 3 and the other neutral zone objective worth 5 points. The Secondary was based on killing a percentage of your opponent’s total power level. First Blood, Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker were the Tertiaries.

This game went back and forth with Nick applying pressure early to my lines by sending in both Heldrakes, the Bikers and 2 squads of Cultists charging turn 1. Fortunately I was able to withstand the tide for the most part. I kept Magnus protected by wrapping him up with Horrors so he couldn’t really get to him. I knew the key to this game would be getting Death Hex on his Magnus first then trying to take the big guy down before he could drop mine. The game went back and forth but over the course of the game I was able to drop Nick’s Magnus with fire from my Obliterators and finishing him off with my own Magnus. His Malefic Lords would finish off my Magnus however with Smites that I could not deny. By turn 5 Nick had 1 brimstone left on an objective in the center of the board that had obsec and I could not kill it. He also had 4 malefic lords on the other neutral zone objective, but I had successfully taken his objective in his deployment zone and managed to hold off the cultists and kill them to hold my own. We ended up tying on the Primary mission! I won the Secondary having killed over 80% of his army’s power level while he had killed roughly 60% of mine and I managed to get 2 of 3 Tertiary objectives giving me a 20-17 victory.

Nick was a class act opponent. We shared several beers and laughed as at times both of our best laid plans seemed to fail. In the end we had an extremely fun game!

Round 2:

Round 2 would see me facing off against Mike Twitchell and his Death Guard foot slogging list. Twitchell is one of the best players in the Southeast and won Best General at Warzone Atlanta 2016. The Primary mission was 3 Relics in the neutral zone along the center line. The goal in this mission is to pick up the Relic and push it into your opponent’s deployment zone. The Secondary mission here was called Marked for Death where you pick 3 units in your opponent’s army and if you kill them you get points towards the secondary. It is a unique mission and one of the fan favorites of the event. This mission was the one I was most concerned with as I did not really include any forward deploying units in my army. I could have taken some Nurglings and it would have helped a lot, but alas I did not. My opponent had a Death Guard detachment with several blobs of Poxwalkers and an Alpha Legion detachment with several Cultists units and a squad of 20 Noise marines. He won the roll to go first and of course deployed all his Cultists on top of the relics and proceeded to push them my way. He tried to alpha strike Magnus by firing off the 20 Noise Marines twice! That is a lot of dakka but fortunately my dice were hot and Magnus withstood the storm. I was able to kill the blob of Noise Marines on my Turn 1 but he kept pushing those relics into my deployment zone. After turn 2 I realized that even if I finally killed them all, I would not be able to get the objectives pushed back into his zone myself so I conceded the match. He picked up a 29-7 win. My first loss of the day.  He and I went to the bar and had a few drinks and discussed the game. Mike was a fantastic opponent and a great guy.

Round 3:

Round 3 saw me match up with one of my travel buddies and closest friends, Billy Carswell, and his own Magnus list. Yes two mirror matches on day 1. This was going to be tough. His list, much like Nick’s, was very similar to my own, however he had an Alpha Legion detachment with 3 Warp Talon squads. This mission had 6 objectives. Each objective can only be scored once over the course of the game. The first time a player scores any objective they gain 1 victory point. If that same objective is scored by the opponent later in the game, he gets 2 victory points. And any time a Fast Attack choice scores an objective it is worth an additional victory point. You also get victory points for killing your opponent’s fast attack choices.  The Secondary mission was based on killing a percentage of your opponent’s army.

Turn 1 was more or less board control on my part as I wasn’t too aggressive with my army. He did not bring in his warp talons on turn 1 as he was waiting on me to clear some space so he could land in the back field. I positioned my Chaos Spawn on 3 objectives on Turn 2 and claimed 6 points. He then proceeded to score his own objectives in his area and finally on turn 3 he dropped his warp talons in behind me having been able to gain some space as I had to advance to begin removing his units. I still had my objectives protected so he couldn’t land on top of them though and he would need to make some charges to get on them to score them next turn. He ended up failing all 3 charges luckily for me. On my following turn I shot all of his warp talons up with my Obliterators. In Turn 2 I pushed my Magnus up to get in range to Death Hex his so I could Warptime and charge him, but all my powers failed to go off. This bought him a turn to try and do the same to my Magnus on his turn which he did. Unfortunately he rolled 3 1s to wound when he charged my Magnus with his own leaving mine alive. Next turn I proceeded to get Death Hex off and finish his Magnus off. By this point he had very little left on the board. All my Chaos Spawn were hidden to deny him the points for killing them and I had scored enough points off objectives and killing his own Warp Talons to get a major victory. I got max points to wrap up Round 3. Final score was 33-5

Day 1 was finally in the books and I was 2-1. Not a bad start to the event at all. Having to face off against 3 Chaos lists, two of which were mirror matches, was a rough start. Fortunately Day 2 would see some different armies.

Round 4:

Day 2 kicked off with a bang as I got to play against Evan from Facing the Grey Tide Podcast. I met Evan at last year’s Warzone but sadly did not get a chance to play him then, so this was a dream match for me. Evan is such a cool guy and an amazing painter. He had a Tyranids list that was simply stunning. It included a big blob of Hormagaunts, Genestealers, and 6 Biovores as well as the Swarmlord in a Tyrannocyte, 2 Mawlocs, a Trygon Prime and a GSC Supreme Command Detachment with a Patriarch and 2 Magus. The Primary mission was kill points with the Secondary being the standard Relic mission.

This game was one of my favorites of the event. I surrounded my deployment zone with a dual layer of screening horrors as I knew he would be wanting to land that Swarmlord for a possible turn 1 charge. I didn’t want to give him any viable targets. Instead he landed Swarmlord near the middle and let the gaunts double move to get a turn 1 charge to try and whittle down my screen. He also managed to get the Genestealers on me by charging turn 1. He managed to eat through most of the initial screen. On my Turn 1 I was able to drop in Obliterators which made short work of Swarmlord and whittled down his gaunts and genestealers. On his Turn 2 he moved the Tyrannocyte up on the Relic as I was pushing a squad of Horrors up to it now having made some space by killing off a lot of his gaunts that were trying to clog the middle of the board.  I also had my Renegade Enforcer pushing up with them. He had manged to squeeze in a couple of Mawlocs into my deployment zone to harass me. I decided to split fire my Obliterators between the Tyrannocyte and a Mawloc, and again the Tyrannocyte is sitting on top of the relic. I manage to get it down to 1 wound and bravely charge in my Renegade Enforcer. I swing first and need a 6 to wound the thing and fortunately I get it and Evan fails the save killing the bug pod and I consolidate onto the relic. At this point we had to call the game to time because there just wasn’t enough time left to finish another round. We ended up tying the Primary kill point objective, but I had the Relic giving me the Secondary and the win. Evan was awesome and after the game we talked about tactics and how awesome the new Tyranid codex was going to be. We then went off to get some lunch before heading into the final round.

Round 5:

This was the last round of the event and it had me facing off against Clint Hoffman. Clint is a great guy and one of the stronger players out of the Louisiana scene.  He brought a nasty Craftworlds Alaitoc army which featured 2 Hemlocks, 2 Dark Reaper squads, 2 Fire Prisms, a Farseer, Illic Nightspear, 2 Warlocks, a Spiritseer, 2 Rangers and 2 Dire Avengers a Wave Serpent and 4 Shadow Spectre squads. Clint decided to deploy the Reapers and 2 Warlocks in a Wave Serpent and Cloudstrike them in with a stratagem. This would end up being a fatal error as he didn’t realize until after he did so that the Reapers could not get out of the Serpent when it came in from deep strike.  A costly mistake on his part that I was able to capitalize on.

This mission had 6 objectives in each 2×2 square and the Primary was a progressive objective mission in which you scored points every turn by having objectives under your control.  The Secondary mission here was straight kill points.  On his Turn 1 he pushed the Hemlocks within range to try and kill Magnus but fortunately for me he only did a few wounds. His Rangers did pick out the Changeling however earning him his first kill. A damaging blow for sure. This was the only match in the event in which I lost the Changeling. On my Turn 1 I moved magnus up near the wave serpent and between the two Hemlocks. I dropped in my Oblits out of range for him to use the Forewarning stratagem to intercept them and proceeded to blow up his Wave Serpent with them. This forced him to get the Reapers out so I could charge them with Magnus, which I did. I killed one squad and consolidated into the other so he could not shoot them next turn. As the game went on Magnus wiped out an entire side of the board including killing the Reapers, Illic Nightspear, a Fire Prism, Spiritseer, Dire Avengers and his Farseer. My Malefic Lords smited the Shadow Specters to death and my Daemon Princes cleaned up.  In the end of turn 5 all Clint had remaining was a Hemlock meaning he was tabled. I ended up scoring max points in this matchup as well.  Clint was disappointed more with some mistakes he made than anything else but he took it in stride and we had several beers over the course of the game. Clint was a class act opponent!

I finished up with 113 Battle Points and a 4-1 record. I got 29 out of 33 points for my paint score and ended up getting 4 first place votes for favorite opponent.  During the awards ceremony I received 2nd place for Best Sportsmanship. I ended up tied with Val Hefflefinger and he got the tie breaker so we were essentially co-winners there as we had the same sportsmanship score. I got a Battle mat and a free ticket to Warzone Atlanta 2018. On top of that I ended up placing 4th overall of which I was quite proud.  It is such an humbling experience to get the Best Sportsmanship vote and I really had set that as a personal goal to try and win it, but it is so hard to in a field like this because everyone is so incredibly awesome. It was hard for me to rank my own favorite opponents throughout the event because I had so many great opponents and matches.

For those interested these were the top 5 overall placings:

Best Overall – Andrew Whittaker – Astra Militarum (Unfortunately there was a list discrepancy which was discovered after the event and Andrew did not receive ITC points for his Best Overall finish)

2nd Overall – Val Hefflefinger – Orks

3rd Overall – Geoff Osborne – Blood Angels

4th Overall – Robert Chandler – Chaos

5th Overall – Philip Cohn – Chaos

Other awards:

Warmaster – Collin Watts – Chaos Daemons

Best Painted – Luke Slothower – Space Wolves

Best Sportsmanship – 1st Val Hefflefinger 2nd Robert Chandler

Warzone Atlanta is truly a unique and amazing Grand Tournament. I cannot stress enough the work the General Staff put into this to make it the extraordinary and premiere event that it has become.  Everyone that comes has a blast. There are no arguments and the judges are extremely knowledgable in the rules. This is truly one of the best tournaments not only in the Southeast but I’d argue in the entire United States.  If you have a chance to come in 2018 I highly recommend it.