The Battle Brothers met in Pensacola to partake in a 2 man Team Tournament over the weekend. Eight teams threw down the gauntlet in a 3 round event, I was running my T'au Seeker Missile List while Jarl Clem was running his Space Wolves backed up by Bobby G and a trio of Valkyries. So let's get going!
To get started, just a quick breakdown on the tournament format and scoring. Scores were cumulative for the two teammates and pairings were made accordingly. Highest scoring players on each team would play each other and the lower scoring would play each other. There were 20 possible points spread over Primary (10), Secondary (6) and Tertiary (4) Objectives. Victories were worth 100 points, ties 50 points and losses 0.
Primary Missions: Eternal War missions randomly determined by TO before each round - 10pts for a win, 5 points for a tie
Secondary Missions: the player with fewer points chooses one of the following (can't overlap with the primary objective):
- 2 Relics: Standard Relic rules, worth 3 points each
- Marked for Death: Prior to deployment, pick 3 enemy units. Each of these units destroyed is worth 2 points.
- Kill Points: Based off Power Level destroyed, 6 points to the player with the most KP at the end of the game.
Tertiary Missions: the four following are each worth 1 pt:
- Slay the Warlord: per the BRB
- Linebreaker: per the BRB
- First Strike: destroy an enemy unit in the first turn
- Big Game Hunter: the player that destroys the most expensive unit gets this objective
My List
Battalion
2x Commanders: 4 Missile Pods, 2 Gun Drones
Cadre Fireblade
2x Strike Team (5): Pulse Rifles; Shas'ui with Pistol and Markerlight
Kroot Carnivores (16)
Outrider
Commander: 4 Fusion Blasters, 2 Gun Drones
2x Pathfinder Teams (5): Pulse Carbines and Markerlights, Shas'ui with Pistol
Tactical Drones (4): Gun Drones
Outrider
Longstrike: Railgun, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Seeker Missiles
3x Piranha Squadrons (3): Burst Cannons, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Seeker Missiles each
Hammerhead: Railgun, 2 Gun Drones, 2 Seeker Missiles
This is basically the same list I've been running for the last couple of months. I dropped the third Pathfinder team and some upgrades to take the Fireblade. The hope is that he'll be able to provide the first markerlight hit to cascade the Pathfinder teams. If Volley Fire ever becomes an issue then something has gone terribly wrong in the game.
The Games
Round 1
Opponent: Jason Rutledge
Faction: Space Marines (Ultramarines)
Primary Mission: No Mercy
Secondary Mission: Marked for Death
For the Opening Round we drew Jason and his teammate Paul. Jason was running a Dreadnought list with 3 Redemptors equipped with the Plasma Incinerator (I'm sure I got that wrong) and 3 "Rifleman" Dreadnoughts. They were backed up by Guilliman and 4 Jump Pack Captains. The deployment was Hammer and Anvil on a desert board with some scattered ruins and rock formations. I selected his 3 Riflemen Dreadnoughts to be Marked for Death while he elected for the two Hammerheads and my Fusion Commander. I deployed heavily on my right flank to provide for some open firing lanes, units were sprinkled across the rest of the deployment zone to force his Captains into some small, designated areas. He deployed his Redemptors on his right flank with Guilliman and line the Riflemen up opposite my firebase anticipating the first turn. Fortunately for me, I won the roll off and he failed to seize.
Forgot to take pictures this game, so here's a Redemptor!
I scout my Pathfinders up into spotting positions and my Kroot fanned out to form a skirmish line. The solo Commander deployed in the middle of firebase declared Kauyon in preparation for the fusillade about to go downrange. I tactically forgot to bring my two reserve Commanders in on Turn 1, which would actually benefit me later on. My Fireblade and Pathfinders marked up two of the 3 Riflemen and between the Seeker Missiles, Hammerheads, and Missile Pods I was able to wipe out all three. This netted me all 6 Secondary points as well as First Strike on the opening salvo, so a very productive Turn 1 for the T'au. Jason held his Captains back and moved up with his Redemptors and Guilliman, drawing lines of fire on my Pathfinders and Kroot. He mauled both squads pretty badly but the two surviving Pathfinders passed their morale check and I burned the 2 CPs to keep the Kroot around and prevent giving up First Strike.
Turn 2 I broke out of my castle, sending one Piranha school towards the Redemptors, one around the back side of my DZ to prevent deep strikes, and a third streaking up the near table edge to try and get linebreaker. I dropped in my Warlord on the left flank so that he could draw LOS and range on the nearest Redemptor and my Fusion Commander midfield on the right to take shots at another. The first Redemptor took fire from 8 Missile Pods, 2 Railguns and a lot of small arms fire and eventually succumbed to the damage. The Fusion Commander was able to put a good bit of damage on his target and reduced the Redemptor down to 4 wounds. At this point, Jason's firepower was pretty well neutered, but he dropped the Captains in to try and charge my Piranhas running up the middle. Unfortunately for him, all 4 failed the 9" charge and took multiple wounds each to the overwatch. He did succeed in taking out the drones on the Fusion Commander, leaving open the opportunity for one of his Marked for Death objectives.
Turn 3 was the beginning of the end. I swarmed his Captains with S5 shots and one by one they fell. My Commanders dealt with the remaining two Redemptors with some timely 6s on the wound rolls by the Hammerheads. Guilliman stood alone. He charged into the Fusion Commander and ran him through with the Emperor's Sword scoring one of his Marks. Discarding the Commander broken body, Guilliman turns to see a school of Piranhas drawn up in a firing line. Pulse fire lashes out and engulfs Guilliman, driving him to the ground. The fusillade subsides and slowly Guilliman rises to his feet, wounded but very much alive. He charges once more, slicing wings from Piranhas and destroying several vehicles. As the survivors peeled off, Guilliman stared into the teeth of the remaining Xenos as the missiles arced in on him. In the top of the 5th Turn, the Primarch of the Ultramarines fell.
Result: Victory 20-2
Round 2
Opponent: Crissy Moore
Faction: Space Marines (Black Templars)
Primary Mission: Big Guns Never Tire
Secondary Mission: Marked for Death
So there was some crazy stuff that happened before this game even got started. My original opponent actually had to go to the hospital with food poisoning (he was fine just in rough shape that afternoon). Fortunately, Crissy was there with her army of Primaris Marines and agreed to step in and play. She was running Black Templars with Helbrecht, Assault Terminators and a Contemptor Dreadnought all loaded in a Stormraven, 3 squads of Intercessors, 3 Hellblasters, an Apothecary, Chapter Ancient w/ Banner (think that's right), and a jump Captain. She marked my 2 Pathfinder squads and one of my Strike Teams while I went with the Stormraven, Contemptor and a unit of Hellblasters. Two Objectives were in each deployment zone and we were deploying with Frontline Assault.
She won the initial roll off and elected to go first, but I seized the initiative! This was huge as the Stormraven would've caused significant issues if it had managed to get its cargo into my lines. With that in mind, it was target number one for me. I again declared Kauyon with my parking lot and remained pretty static. Due to her firepower, I kept two of my marked units out of LOS on objectives so my Markerlights were more constrained than usual but I still managed to get enough to fire off the Seekers at normal BS. The Fusion Commander dropped around his max range from the Raven as well as the Warlord who was just out of LOS from all of the Hellblasters. Between those 2 Commanders, Hammerheads and one of the Piranha squadrons I was able to down the Stormraven before it moved out of her DZ. Meanwhile, my Kroot had scouted and moved up the center of the board towards her big firebase with 2 Hellblaster units on the upper levels and Intercessors on the bottom floor. The Kroot peppered the Hellblasters before charging into the Intercessors. Her turn began with the Intercessors falling back out of combat and the Hellblasters turning the Kroot into deep fried chicken nuggets. The rest of her turn consisted of trying to get through to the Commanders, but fortunately for me my drones last long enough to protect them from the worst of the fire. The Contemptor managed to charge my warlord and do 3 wounds of damage (thank you Savior Protocols) and the Terminators failed their charge on the Fusion Commander.
Turn 2 began with some falling back on my part as well with the Commander getting away from the Contemptor and drawing LOS on the Hellblasters marked in the building the Kroot had attempted to gain access to. The Fusion Commander backpedaled into ruins and took some potshots at the Terminators. The Piranhas swarmed forward to get shots on the Hellblasters with either Burst Cannons/Pulse Carbines or swiveled out to get Seeker Missile shots on them. My Fusion Commander was able to finish off the Contemptor while the rest of my firepower chewed through the Hellblasters in the building. The Marked squad went down but due to the banner got to return fire into my Piranhas. Crissy managed to get some shots at my Pathfinders and Strike Teams while taking out some Piranhas.
Turn 3 opened with my Piranhas speeding up to try and clear out the Intercessors, while the rest of my units advanced up the central avenue. My Commanders continued to move in the middle of the pack, well away from the Terminators, while the Hammerheads remained stationary in the back corner to safely provide fire support. As my only Heavy Support options, they had to stay safe in a game that looked tight. The Hellblasters were cleared out along with the Intercessors drawing the ire of the Terminators who opened the bottom of the turn by moving to intercept the Piranhas making their way towards the DZ. Intercessors were able to draw LOS on my last Pathfinder in Squad 1 and finish him off. We entered Turn 4 knowing it would likely be the last turn so I moved two of my surviving Piranhas into her DZ and took some shots but failed to any real damage. Crissy mounted a counterattack that destroyed the Piranhas but allowed a single drone to escape, giving me Linebreaker.
All in all this was a very very tight game, and the score is not in any way indicative of how it went. I managed to get max score on Primary by virtue of 1) hiding two units (my Marked units) on objectives and 2) Killing the two Hellblaster units. I was able to get all 3 of the units I marked to Crissy's 1 and achieved 3 of the 4 Tertiary Objectives. Helbrecht survived the battle unscathed. Killing my Kroot gave Crissy First Strike.
Result: Victory 19-3
Round 3
Opponent: Chris Johnson
Faction: Adeptus Mechanicus
Primary: The Scouring
Secondary Mission: Dual Relics
We went into the 3rd Round sitting in 1st Place by one point over the hometown crew from TBS Pensacola. I drew Chris and his Adeptus Mechanicus snake themed army (you can see some of the conversions below) while Adam took on the abomination of Magnus, Mortarion, and a Renegade Knight piloted by Gary Moore (no relation...we don't think anyways). It was the Scouring so obviously we'd be duking it out over objectives. As we had the same score, we diced off for Secondary and Chris chose to do the Dual Relics. The deployment was Search and Destroy which was convenient as a giant pillar dubbed Isengard dominated the center of the board. Objectives were pretty well spread with 3 in No Man's Land, 2 in his DZ and 1 in mine. It ended up that the Superior Objective was on my left flank and the Inferior was dead middle of my zone. Setups like that make for easy decisions on what has to be done.
Chris was running Cawl, a Datasmith, 2 units of 3 Destroyers with Grav, a 6 man unit of Breachers with something long ranged and nasty, 3 Dragoons, 2 big squads of Vanguard and 2 units of Sniper Rangers, and Celestine. The Dragoons were deployed forward opposite my Kroot followed by the Breachers then back up by Cawl, the Destroyers and the Infantry.
I won the roll for first turn and immediately proceeded to remove the Breachers from the board. I don't remember what guns they had but I wanted no part of them. My Fusion Commander dropped in on the superior objective and was able to take out one of the Dragoons while my Kroot snatched up a Relic and scooted into some trees, albeit far too close to the Mechanicus lines. The remaining Dragoons charged into my Pathfinders and Kroot, destroying both units but leaving themselves vulnerable to my return fire. A good bit of fire power and psychic attacks were directed at my Fusion Commander who managed to survive with 3 wounds and no drones remaining. His Infantry scurried up onto the objectives near his DZ which provided them with good fire positions on my Piranhas. Celestine made a beeline for my frontlines.
My Turn 2 was equally devastating as Longstrike and friends destroyed the 2 remaining Dragoons, my Missile Commanders removed the Destroyers from play and the wounded Commander nuked the the Primaris Psyker. Chris followed up in the bottom of the turn by charging Celestine into one of my Commanders and the Tactical Drones, tying up the Hammerhead in the process. I lost a couple Piranhas to Cawl's shooting as well as Fire Warriors to some of his Vanguard. Celestine swung in but I was able to put most of the wounds onto the drones allowing the Commander to live.
I fell back from combat and was able to shoot Celestine to death (of course she came back though). At this point, I had started to spread out and go towards objectives on my flanks. Chris finished off my Fusion Commander and had his Datasmith fending off some drones for the Super Objective. There was a lot of back and forth at this point in No Man's Land, but I was able to bring Cawl down through weight of fire and the Hammerheads were able to down Celestine again. The Piranhas cleared the Vanguard off of the Objectives leaving only his Rangers and a Company Commander when time was called. Very tight game but I was able to take control early by destroying the Breachers and Destroyers. With his ranged firepower gone, I was able to move much more freely around the board.
Max points for me and he picked up First Strike from the Kroot. Really fun game and great banter, the movie quotes were on point.
Result: Victory 20-1
Results
Adam managed a tie against Gary in the 3rd round so we finished the tournament with 540 points. Unfortunately the guys in third were able to jump us and take First Place with 588. Really fun event and we had some great games. I finished 3-0 and was one point shy of max points for the event which was good for the highest individual score, so couldn't be too upset. Going first every game was certainly helpful as it ensured my alpha strike got off, but I'm very pleased with the amount of shots I can put downrange after the initial seeker missile strike.
The next event up is NarbyCon in Gautier, MS on December 9. It's a Highlander event so you're only allowed to bring 1 of any unit in the list. Should be a lot of fun and I'll definitely be doing some variations on this list to try and get something similar there.
Thanks for reading!
Tau'va
Let me know your thoughts on slow play because I feel this
will be a huge topic for the foreseeable future. 
