After having gotten a good number of games under my belt with the Nevermore, I took them out to another Tournament scene. This would be their 3rd such showing, and whilst the smallest of the lot, also the best one yet.

Overview

This turned out to be a 3 game, 8 team event. A few rules were modified a bit as follows. Each army on a team was considered completely separate for list building purposes, as well as for stratagems and CP expenditure. For scoring purposes, both players armies were counted as a whole force. Either player’s warlord would count for the Slay the Warlord. As each force was only a thousand points, the rule of two was in effect. No more than two of any unit, excepting troops and transports, and only two detachments. I got randomly paired ahead of time with a partner, who was running Chaos Space Marines.

A quick note here first – This is my first attempt at doing battle reports, and I realized after the fact there is a definite skill to taking good photos and throughout the entire game. As such, I have our deployment zones typically, and that is it. Hopefully I can theater-of-the-mind this well enough to be comprehensible.

The List

My list was as follows:

Battalion

Ravenguard Successors with Whirlwind or Rage (6’s to hit in combat count as two hits) and Master Artisans (re-roll a hit and wound roll per unit per phase). After Pre-game CP expenditures, I was left with a mere 3 CP to play with.

• Jump Chapter Master with Thunder hammer and storm shield, Warlord with Sword of the Imperium trait (+1 attack and str on the first round of combat) and the Master of Ambush trait (Pre game re-deploy this unit and an infantry unit). 
• Phobos Captain with Marksmans Honors Trait and Korvidari Bolts Relic. This turns him into a 4 damage sniper who does not need Line of Sight. 
• Primaris Lieutenant with Ex Tenenbris Relic. This lets him hit on 2’s with 3 shots, at strength 4 and 2 damage a piece, and it ignores cover. 
• 3 units of 5 Intercessors, each with a Thunderhammer on the Sargent 
• A 5 man unit of Aggressors
• An Impulsor with Storm bolters and the Shield dome

My Partner (Nate)’s list:

Battalion

This first detachment was red corsairs to try and get more CP in his list. After pre-game expenditures, he was left with 9.

• Chaos Lord with Jump Pack, Mark of Khorne, Z’aall (Deamon Weapon Relic – the roll to use the sword gets added to it’s strength)
• Sorcerer with the Mark of Slaanesh, a Force Stave and plasma pistol. Psychic powers were Prescience (+1 to hit rolls) and Warptime (Double move)
• Three units of Chaos Marines, two units had auto cannons and one unit a heavy bolter, all units had Mark of Slaanesh. 

Vanguard

This detachment of Word Bearers was also a specialist of Daemonkin ritualists and included their field commander.

• Dark Apostle, Apostle of the Dark Council (to chant two prayers a turn), Benediction of Darkness (Prayer: Unit within 6″ nominated become -1 to hit at range), Blissful Devotion, Mark of Khorne, Shepherd of the True Faith (6″ aura to let 6’s to wound = mortals wounds in addition to damage), Soultearer Portent ( prayer: +1 to wound for a unit within 6″). He also had dark disciples accompany him for the 2+ to get prayers off
• Mater of Possession with Force Stave, Warlord Trait: Master of the Union (+1 attack to Deamons within 6″), Psychic powers of Cursed Earth and Mutated Invigoration (+1 to invul and re-roll Possessed random attacks), infernal power, and the Malefic Tome Relic (for the second power known and +1 to cast).
• Greater Possessed
• Hellbrute, fist and dual lascannon
• 15 Possessed with Mark of Khorne and Icon of Wrath

Pregame Thoughts and Tactics

So Nate and I both brought relatively heavy close combat armies. Simply because that is what we both enjoy playing. Nate had the Possessed Bomb, able to get them with all their buffs up to roll d3 re-roll-able number of attacks, to which they added 2. These were made at Str 7, ap -2, and 2 damage, with 6’s to wound doing an additional Mortal wound. Had a +1 to hit and wound, and 1’s to hit and wound could be re-rolled. That was pretty much the crux of the Chaos forces and that unit did some serious work for us. The three Chaos Marine squads were there to screen, hold objectives, and add some firepower. The hellbrute was a bit of ranged anti-armor firepower, while the Chaos Lord was there for any Fliers we might encounter.

On my end, the Smash Captain was also there for Fliers, as well as just hitting really, really hard. The Intercesors squads were typically my MVP, with one going into the Impulsor to get up-field quickly. The Phobos Capt and LT were my only snipers, and in practice games they did a ton of work. The 5 Aggressors were a good hard-hitting unit in both combat and at range.

Game 1 – vs Dual Iron Hands

Ouch. Soon as we saw that we knew this would be an uphill battle.

ITC Mission one, and Vanguard Strike deployment.

Opponent’s list. Both players took exactly the same list.

• Techmarine, upgraded to Master of the Forge (heals 3 instead of d3) and Master of the Machine Trait (+1 to hit for vehicles within 6″). They took the Endurant Protector Relic on both as well (4++ and +1 Toughness).
• Two Repulsor Executioner’s with Heavy Laser Destroyer. They each had two. So four total. In a 2k list. That was an oversight…
• A Relic Leviathan Dread with two Storm Cannon Array. Each. 

So their entire army was two characters, four tanks, and two dreads.

Oh boy – this was gonna be rough.

For Secondaries we took Big Game Hunter, Recon, and Engineers. They took Old School, Butcher’s Bill and Head Hunter.

Turn 1

We ended up with first turn and I re-deployed my smash captain very aggresively on the top left and infiltrated him to within 9″ of their units. My Aggressors I moved up to the center terrain and tried to hug cover. This was a mistake. I should have not been as conservative with them and instead pushed them up in front of the two Leviathan’s. Hindsight and all that. Other units shuffled to try and take cover, and the Impulsor scooted up to hide behind the pillar. If none of their vehicles moved, it was completly hidden. Shooting was ineffectual, and I forgot to fire my Phobos Captain…

The Smash Captain went into one Levithan (should have declared both as a charge), charging through a wall so no overwatch. 6 Thunder Hammer attacks. After Re-rolls, I got 10 hits! Wounding on 3’s…. I get two wounds. He saves one and takes 2 damage from the other having used Duty Eternal… Not good.

What I should have done was (1) charge both Leviathan’s with my Captain and (2) set up my Agressors also for the charge, knowing the Captain would stop the overwatch. This would have allowed me to dump all their attacks into a Leviathan and should have killed it, letting me wrap the second one and survive. Instead, as you can expect, the lone Levithan fell back and they picked up my Captain. 6 Wounds managed to go downrange onto my Impulsor, and a Chaos Marine squad got picked up as well.

Something to Note: Due to the terrain layout, from having cover in the center to making a charge was a 36″ move at best to their units. The fact the four corners all had raised hills meant they could get elevated positions to shoot over most terrain as well.

End of Turn one we got Hold, Hold More, and Recon. They got Kill, Kill More, Hold, Butchers, and two Old School. 3 to 6 them.

Turn 2

The rest of the game was fairly boring. Us trying to hide, them using the Hills to get line of sight over terrain to see the smallest part of a model to pick up the whole squad. Turn two we failed to do any damage, but picked up Recon, Hold, Hold More, and Two Engineers. Squads maneuver around trying to get charges off if they came forward any. I did remember to shoot my Phobos Captain at a Techmarine and he passed his 4++ to take no damage.

On their turn two, one Executioner came forward slightly trying to get Line of sight on an Engineer unit. It was not able to but did pick up an intercessor unit in our back field by seeing the smallest part of one model. They again scored Kill, Kill more, Butchers, and Hold.

Score: 8 to 10 them.

Turn 3

We tried for some big charges. The Chaos Lord came in, failed his charge. The Possesssed bomb managed to warptime up, and after the -2 to charge the Executioner, needed to make a 9 re-rollable. They failed. A third of the squad got picked up to 4+ overwatch. Phobos Captain shot a Techmarine again; hit, wound, and he failed the save! 4 Damage – that is a dead Techmarine!

Except

Except Iron Hands also get a 6+++ save. He makes one and doesn’t die…

We got the last two Engineers, and a Hold. Their turn saw them move up slightly to claim two more objectives, stopping us from being able to get hold more. They removed the rest of the Possessed and lined up a shot on the Thunderfire to remove it as well. Using the hills on the edge of their deployment, they were able to see the top of an Aggressor so picked up that squad too. They Scored Hold, Kill, Kill more, Headhunter and Butchers.

Score: 11 to 14 them.

Turn 4

The handwriting is on the wall. It is not looking good for us. Shooting sees the wounded Techmarine make his 4++ again. Arg! Their Levithan Dread is close enough I push my last Intercessor squad over the wall and towards it. 4+ Overwatch sees only two guys live to swing in combat (TH srg hit with all 4 attacks, and exploded with 3 of them for 7 hits total!), managing to get 13 damage through to it. Not enough for the kill…

Their turn sees them pick up the Hellbrute (who failed all his shooting to that point and I forgot to mention till now), the last two from the intercessors squad, and the two squads of Chaos Marines left, as well as all the chaos characters. This left us with only my Phobos Captain and the Tech marine left…

We got Hold. They got Hold, Hold more, Kill, Kill More, 3 Head hunter, and their last butchers.

Score: 12 to 23.

Turn 5

Techmarine hid, for all the good it would do him. Phobos Captain fired at the wounded Techmarine again. Hit, wounded, failed save, and finally, finally, the first kill of the game for us! (Something to note: out of all three games, we were the only opponents of theirs to kill a single model). We picked up Kill and Hold.

Their turn saw their Executioners move up and easily pick up both the techmarine and the phobos captain to table us.

Final Score: 14-34

Post Game thoughts

That….

That was Brutal.

Outside of the aforementioned move with the Aggressors, I am not sure what else we could have done differently. That and remembering to shoot with the Phobos Captain turn 1, and maybe the LT in the transport, although I doubt that would have made a huge difference. The terrain for this table was seriously in favor of Shooting armies, what with the Imperial Bastion style piece in the center, the raised hills in each corner and the absolute dearth of terrain anywhere really in between. We were the highest scoring opponents they had, as well as the only to kill a single model or to make it past turn 2. So I think we did fairly well with what we had. I think possibly with the aggressors charging in turn one, I could have dropped that Levithan, wrapped the second, and then gotten stuck in to do some damage that way. It would have been a difficult battle either way, but that was out best hope.

Either way, it was an interesting start to our Tournament and one I’d really hoped to do better with. 14 points on a loss wasn’t the worst we could do. Lessons learned. Moving on.

Game two coming up next!

Thanks for reading, and happy Wargaming!

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