Coming into the final round of the day saw us pair up some mates of mine. This was the list Nate and I had practiced against pre-tournament and felt the most comfortable with. They knew all our tricks too through, and the question now was who would prevail!
If you missed it, you may find game 1 here and game 2 here respectively.
As before, I will quickly summarize our lists
Mine was the Nevermore (Whirlwind of Rage and Master Artisans)
Battalion
- Jump Chapter Master with Thunder hammer and storm shield, Warlord with Sword of the Imperium trait and the Master of Ambush trait.
- Phobos Captain with Marksmans Honors Trait and Korvidari Bolts.
- Primaris Lieutenant with Ex Tenenbris Relic.
- 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.
Nate brought a Red Corsairs Battalion and a Word Bearers Deamonhost specialist Vanguard detachment
Battalion
Chaos Lord with Jump Pack, Mark of Khorne, Z’aall
- Sorcerer with the Mark of Slaanesh. Psychic powers were Prescience and Warptime.
- Three units of Chaos Marines, two units had auto cannons and one unit a heavy bolter, all units had Mark of Slaanesh.
Vanguard
- Dark Apostle, Apostle of the Dark Council, Benediction of Darkness, Blissful Devotion, Mark of Khorne, Shepherd of the True Faith, Soultearer Portent. He also had dark disciples accompany him for the 2+ to get prayers off
- Mater of Possession, Warlord Trait: Master of the Union, Psychic powers of Cursed Earth and Mutated Invigoration, infernal power, and the Malefic Tome Relic.
- Greater Possessed
- Hellbrute, fist and dual lascannon
- 15 Possessed with Mark of Khorne and Icon of Wrath
Our opponents this time were bringing an Ork Battalion and a Thousand Sons Supreme Command
Orks Battalion
- Ork Warboss on bike – Warlord
- Weirdboy
- 3 units of Gretchin
- A unit of 3 nob bikers
- A unit of 6 bikers
- 3 Mek Guns all Kustom Mega-Kannons
- A Morkanought with Kustom Force Field
Thousand Sons Supreme Command
- Ahriman, Warlord
- 2 Deamon Princes
- Magnus
We were playing Mission 3, Nexus Control, and rolled up deployment 4, Hammer and Anvil.
Pre game Set up and Thoughts
Nate and I were fairly well versed in this army. We played them before and knew what they could do. Move fast and hit hard on turn one. They wanted the first turn to do as much damage as possible with psychic powers and ork charges. We knew the Morkanought could be an issue if we lost the possessed early, so we’d need to protect them. I also knew they had a special hatred for my Phobos Captain and would try to kill it as soon as possible. The Morkanought would be deepstriking in so we would need to screen that out well.
My plan was to draw the Orks to the Phobos Captain. The only way for me to protect him would be to put him in the Impulsor or put him so far in a corner as to be useless. Instead I planned to place him forward and re-deploy him pre-game, but still within range for them to charge. We believed we could absorb multiple charges and interrupt to do some serious damage back.
For Secondaries we took Headhunter, Butcher’s Bill, and Old School. Our opponents took Headhunter, Behind enemy lines and Old School.
Despite having a lot more drops, we still one the roll-off to go first. We Elected to give our opponents the first move to bring them out from behind cover.
I moved my Phobos Captain in with the Aggressors and pushed my Smash Capt in with the Chaos blob.
Turn 1
Magnus moved up 16″. Wait – I thought he could move 12″…. Nope, I was wrong. This means they can warptime him up to get a guaranteed charge on the possessed. Oops. Warboss Advances towards the Aggressors and Phobos Capt. The Nob bikers advance to within 5″ of my right side sacrificial Phobos unit. Ahriman floats up behind Magnus. The deamon princes stay still, afraid of getting hit without hitting much back. The 6 bikes get jumped up to the right side between my Intercessors and Aggressors aiming for a long charge on the Smash Captain. It is clear they are aiming to decapitate us turn one.
Psychic sees Magnus get warptimed up. Ahriman actually cast double 1’s on the power, but was able to re-roll it due to Thousand Son’s shenanigans. A smite eats the Greater Possessed from Magnus, while he casts a -1 to hit on himself, as well as prescience. Other powers go off. I don’t recall them all because they did not matter.
Shooting sees the Warboss to shoot at the Aggressors, putting one down to a wound left. The Nob bikers wish choose to shoot the Chaos Marines up top so as to not deny themselves the charge. They kill a model.
Charges! Warboss charges the Aggresors and Phobos Capt. Magnus Charges the Possessed. The ork player realizes his nob bikers are way to far from his Warboss to be able to charge… ouch. The bikers who jumped up make a long charge to hit the Smash Captain. The Ork player really – really wants my Captain to die so he attacks first. He puts most of his attacks into the Phobos Captain…. and I make almost every single save. Captain has 3 wounds left! He also finishes off the Aggressor he wounded earlier.
At this point, both Nate and I choose to interrupt. Me with the Smash Captain, who promptly picks up all 6 bikers, and Nate with the Possessed, who after burning some stratagems, drops Magnus! (We got 12 mortal wounds to go through before rolling for saves…). That was huge! With no other valid charging units, my Aggressors elect to fight dropping the Warboss. He then pays two CP for his warboss to fight in death, and removes my Aggressors and leaves the Phobos Captain at one wound left.
That was rough for them. And we had yet to even have our turn yet…
Speaking of – on our turn my Impuslor moved up to offload the Intercessors, who moved up to get Line of Sight on their Grots in their objective and on the two Deamon Princes. My Smash Captain moved up behind the Nob bikers and the ruin with the deamon princes, while the Sacrificial Intercessor squad (Who lived!) moved to also get LoS on the Gretchin. The Possessed moved through the center ruins, eyeing the two Deamon Princes. The Chaos Marines in the center moved down and got ready to grab the Left side center Objective in a turn or two.
Psychic saw the Possessed get warptimed up, needing a 6″ charge now on the closer of the Princes. Other powers buffed that unit up to a 4++ and gave them re-rollable attacks and all kinds of crazy buffs. (Seriously, happy these heretics were on my side).
Shooting saw the TFC and a Intercessor squad pick up the Grots on their Objective, while the Impulsor and the other Intercessor squad nabbed a kill off a Nob biker. The Phobos Captain shot at the wierd boy – who made his save to live.
Charges, I elected to not charge my smash Captain into the Deamon princes fearing they may be able to interrupt if the Possessed didn’t take them both and pick him up. Insead he charged in after the Intercessors to the Ork Nobs. The Possessed charged both Deamon Princes. Snake Eyes on the charge roll – ouch! Luckily we could re-roll.. and got a 6. Not enough to catch the second one, but enough to get a few models into the first. After Pile in’s 9 Possessed swung and easily ate that prince. The Smash Captain took all the nob bikers on his own too. The second Prince moved up and killed one Possessed in retaliation. They then spent the CP to fight again and ate him as well.
This was a brutal first turn
We scored 4 Headhunter, Butcher’s Bill, and two on Old school, as well as Kill, Kill more, Hold, Hold more. They Scored Kill, Old School, Head Hunter, and Hold
Score: 11 to 4. Us
Turn 2
The Handwritting is on the wall, but our opponents were valiantly going to try and play this out!
They move the Wierdboy up with an advance roll to try and get to their objective. Short by 1″. Ahriman moves up through the center ruins. The Morkanought drops in 9″ away on our left side, taking aim at the Possessed.
Psychic sees Ahriman casually smite the Phobos Captain into the dirt, as well as some Possessed getting shocked to death. Shooting has the Kannon target the Possessed for two kills and Morkanought target them too, managing to kill a single model. He then charges them killing all but 3. Those will run to Morale, but not before they do 9 damage back to it. Ahriman charges the Chaos Marines on the ground and wipes them out.
Our turn 2.
My Smash Captain flies inside the ruins to also get a over-watch free charge on the Morkanought. Impulsor moves into the ruins, able to go for either objective next turn. Our Deamon Prince lands in their back field to try to charge the Wierdboy. My two units of Intercessors move to converge on Ahriman, with the back group lining up a charge through the wall. My other unit angles to get LoS on the Gretchin hidding in their back right ruins.
Shooting sees a Combination of Intercessors and TFC remove the back right Gretchin. The Impuslor and Middle Intercessor unit shoots at Ahriman, leaving him on 3 wounds left. Charges has the aforementioned Deamon prince, also the Smash Captain into the Morkanought. Two units of Intercessors also charge Ahriman. I swing with them first, as that player still has 2CP with which he could interrupt. 4 Thunderhammer attacks proced into 7 hits. 7 Wounds. Ahriman dead. Smash Captain also went right through the Ork contraption.
We Scored Kill, Kill more, Hold, Hold More, Butchers. They Scored Kill, Head hunter.
Score: 16 to 6. Us.
At this point in the game, our opponents conceded. They are left with:
- One Wierdboy
- One Squad of Gretchin
- Three Mek Guns.
They Have Line of Sight on nothing they can shoot, and are holding no objectives.
Next turn we are able to get all 4 objectives. I have saved one CP to be able to Advance and Charge with my Smash Captain. We have the tools to pick up all of their units next turn. At best, they could maybe get a super smite and charge the Deamon prince for a kill… but highly unlikely.
Final Score: 41 to 6. Us.
Post Game Thoughts
That went about as well as we could have asked for. Our opponents made a few critical mistakes (which I am chalking up to having just faced the dual Iron Hands list that crushed our souls in game one). They Should have kept the Nob Bikes near enough to the Warboss to be able to charge after advancing, and should have let Magnus attack first. Even with that said, I think we would have pulled this out in the end but not by the landslide victory that we did. The Movement options Ravenguard have a very nice, and the Possessed bomb is truly terrifying.
Overall, I really like this inception of the list for the Nevermore. I was certainly missing my Psycher, but the addition of the Impulsor gave me some much needed options. I will certainly be playing around with it before the next tournament. Unfortunately, the next upcoming Major I will be a Ref at, so my next tournament to test these will be another double RTT. Nerveless, I am thoroughly enjoying my Nevermore! We ended up taking 2nd overall and have some serious plans for how to deal with Iron hands come a re-match.
Thanks for reading, and happy Wargaming!
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