40k GT Report: Game 4

Hey everybody, Conor here. For game three of the Crucible GT I was up against a familiar adversary—The Castellan.

I had to focus on using my Spears correctly in this match. I did not want them to be shot by any of his heavy firepowers so hiding them would be a priority. I wanted to eliminate my opponent’s threats aside from the Castellan and rely on the Spears to finish it off in combat with their AP4 lances. I don’t have a ton of long-range firepower so I needed to wait for the big beast to get close. I took the Starmist Rainment on a Troupe Master so I could ignore the Castellans overwatch when I did charge it.

As for secondaries, I picked engineers (I placed one of my objectives inside a ruin) recon and gangbusters. My opponent, Cameron, picked Old Skool, Reaper, and Headhunter. We rolled Search and Destroy and played ITC mission #4.

Here is my list:

Craftworld Battalion: Superior Shurkien and Masterful Shots

• Farseer Skyrunner
• Warlock Skyrunner

• 20 Guardian Defenders (2 Scatter Lasers)
• 20 Guardian Defenders (2 Scatter Lasers)
• 5 Rangers

• Nightspinner
• Nightspinner

Craftworld Battalion: Children of Prophecy and Hail of Doom

• Farseer Skyrunner
• Warlock Skyrunner
• Warlock Skyrunner

• 5 Rangers
• 5 Rangers
• 5 Rangers

• 9 Shining Spears (Exarch: Skilled Rider and Star Lance

Harlequin Supreme Command: Midnight Sorrow

• Shadowseer (Warlord)
• Troupe Master (Fusion Pistol/Harlequins Kiss)
• Troupe Master (Fusion Pistol/Harlequins Kiss)

• Solitaire

Here is my opponent’s list:

Super Heavy Auxiliary (House Raven)

• Knight Castellan (Plasma Decimator, Volcano Lance, Two Siegebreaker missiles, Two Shieldbreaker missiles)

Admech Battalion (Ryza)

• Tech-Priest Dominus 
• Tech-Priest Manipulus

• 6x Kataphron Breachers (Heavy Arc Rifle, Hydraulic Claw)
• 5x Kataphron Breachers (Heavy Arc Rifle, Hydraulic Claw, 1 Arc Claw and Heavy Arc Rifle)
• 6x Kataphron Destroyers (Phosphor Blaster, Plasma Culverin)

Admech Battalion (Stygies VIII)

• Daedalosus
• Tech Priest Enginseer

• 5x Skitarii Rangers
• 5x Skitarii Rangers
• 5x Skitarii Rangers

• 4x Sydonian Dragoons (Taser Lances)

We decided that the ruin in my deployment zone was an enclosed ruin, so I deep struck my Spears and one unit of Guardians. I put everything else on the table. I jammed my army in the ruin and planned to Phantasm forward if I got the first turn. Cameron deployed his Kataphrons and Dragoons on the line and joked he was just going to bum rush me. 

After he lined them up so close to my forces, I really wanted to go first. I would be able to pick up a Kataphron squad with the my Guardian bomb, and aggressively position my characters inside the NOVA L. Unfortunately I went second. 

Cameron is true to his word, and the Robots rolled forward. He grabbed the middle and left of the board, and the Castellan dropped two of my Nightspinners. One downside to the vehicles in my list is they are fire magnets for the weapons (Lascannons, Volcano Lances) that are ineffective against my Guardians.

I was actually OK with this board position. The Guardians could strike the Kataphrons in the center, and the Solitaire had a trick up her sleeve.

In my turn I got aggressive. I spent a CP to auto-advance my Guardians 6″, grabbed a second objective, and blitzed my Solitaire into the NOVA L. I could charge a Kataphron squad from out of line of sight. Cegorachs Rose (three damage) has a decent profile to do damage against the Kataphrons since they have three wounds.

I got my psychic powers off (Guide and Doom were successful) and the Guardians shot away five Breachers even though my opponent played the +1 save stratagem. The Solitaire leaped through the wall in the charge phase, and with the fight twice stratagem she killed the second unit of Breachers by herself. The middle of the board was cleared out.

Cameron clapped back. The Dragoons (heretofore known as Chicken Walkers) did their funky stroll into the middle of the board to murder my Solitaire. the Castellan leveled its absurd assortment of weaponry at my Guardians. The Kataphron Destroyers on the left trundled over to an objective and warmed up their Plasma. It was on.

My Guardians died, but it happened at the correct moment. I will not pretend I planned this. I figured they would stand up to the firepower Cameron could kick out, but I was a little nervous. Fortunately, he couldn’t kill them quickly enough to target my characters.

Cameron was also able to kill my remaining Nightspinner and the Chicken Walkers killed the Solitaire.

In my turn, I continued to focus on killing everything besides the Castellan. I dropped all of my reserves this turn. The Guardians dropped in front of the Chicken Walkers and the Castellan. Cameron and I determined that I could drop my Spears on the far side of my NOVA L and remain out of sight from the Castellan and within charge range of the Chicken Walkers. I cast Doom and Jinx on the Chicken Walkers but still only managed to kill two in shooting.

The Spears yeehawed their way into combat, and managed to finish the Chicken Machines off with their Laser Lances. They wrapped a Tech Priest. This turned out to be a sketchy proposition. The Spears had no buffs, and the Priest Managed to kill a couple of them, which sucked for me.

This was where the game got tight. It was down to my characters, a Guardian bomb, and six Spears versus some Kataphron Destroyers and a Knight Castellan. I was beginning to think my kill-everything-else-but-the-giant-robot plan was going to fail. The Castellan and the Breachers killed a few of my Guardians in shooting, and the Castellan charged in and squished a few more, leaving me with 10 left. I saved them in morale with two CP. In the Spear combat, they lost another Spear and a half. Was this the end times for the Eldar?

My Characters stared up at the Imperium behemoth and sighed. Maybe the strands of fate were snipped and Cegorachs blessing had vanished. I spent my final two CP to fall back and charge with my Spears. The Spirit of Khaine needed to flow through their Exodite veins. Seriously.

The Guardians lost enough of their number in the fight phase that I pulled them out of combat. They repositioned themselves to screen my jetbike character as they soared into a table quarter to get my final recon point. I laid everything I had into the Castellan. Smites. Doom. Jinx. Tiny ninja stars. I charged it first with my ignores overwatch Troupe Master. The Spears followed after; the Castellan had 14 wounds left.

During a moment that you can recite to your grandchildren, the Laser Lances of the Shining Spears of the +4 Shuriken Craftworld penetrated the Plasma Reactor of the Knight Castellan of House Raven. It exploded.

Two of my Spears and half of both of my Troupe Masters died, but it could have been worse. At this point, the game was basically decided. Cameron was down to a couple of Kataphron Destroyers, some Rangers, and a couple of Characters. I still had all but one of my characters, half a Spear squad and a handful of Guardians. We finished out the last couple of turns. The final score was 38-19.

I played a bit of a gamble in the game. Since my Strategy was based around saving the Castellan for last (the worst dessert ever) If I hadn’t killed it, I probably would have lost that game. Cameron would have played the top-tier strat and wrecked my army.

This sort of strategizing is something I am trying to improve upon. Those all-in moments are unavoidable sometimes, but I would like to have an overall gameplan that doesn’t have to focus on killing a super difficult to kill model at a late stage of the game. It worked, but I can always improve. Tune in next week for my final game of the Crucible Grand Tournament. Thanks for reading.

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