Battle Brothers of The GCWA - Episode 15 - Space Wolves, Q&A, Upcoming Events

VISIONS RTT T'au After Action Report

The Battle Brothers took a short drive up I-65 to Montgomery, AL for the Sundary RTT at Visions Cards and Games. The store is the home turf of the Dangli Boyz, a group of gamers who dove into Competitive Play recently and began their own podcast (available on Podbean, coming soon to iTunes...hopefully) documenting their exploits. I highly recommend giving them a listen as the show is a lot of fun, Language Warning though. Great content and a fun listen!

This was my first excursion to the Montgomery area for a 40k event so I went in with very little idea as to the local meta. I knew Seth Oster as a fellow T'au player and Bjorn Cantrell as a pure Space Wolves player (rocking the new codex for the first time this event as they allowed it). Mike Bridgemon was the only Dangli Boyz member I'd faced before when we were paired in the last round of the GCWA GT. My Hammerheads had won the tank duel in that matchup, unfortunately Mike wasn't able to play and could only swing by to watch a little bit of the second round. But! There was excellent turnout and we had 16 players for the 3 round event, including 10 Imperial Players - 3 of which were Knight primary.

Normally I would post the list I ran here but it was basically the same as my Warzone Gigabytes list with some minor adjustments. Dropped the Counterfire Defense System on the Riptides in favor of the Advanced Targeting System then dropped a Fire Warrior and a couple Seeker Missiles to make the points right.

**Sorry no pictures this time. I forgot...**

GAMES

Round 1

Opponent: Charlie Roberson
Army: Blood Angels Infantry plus Knight Crusader
Mission: Firestorm with Spearhead Assault

Round 1 I draw Charlie and his Blood Angels. He was going with a different take on the usual tournament Blood Angels and going with a lot of tactical squads and a scattering of characters. His fire support was provided by Brutus, a Freeblade Crusader. I tried to deploy back as far as possible to avoid exposing my Hammerheads and Sky Ray to the Gatling and Battle Cannons while I put the Riptides forward as a fire magnet.

Charlie won the roll off and went first, moving Brutus up to take aim at one of my Riptides. Between Savior Protocols and the Riptide's armor, I only lost 3 Drones and the Riptide was unscathed. I moved the Riptides forward to get better range on his Infantry and clear LoS for my tanks in the back. Thankfully, I remembered to shuffle my Fire Warriors towards the corner to block off that side from a potential Deep Strike by his Fist Captain and friends. The Sky Ray shot its missile load first and knocked off between 10-12 wounds from Brutus. I followed up with a Command and Controlled Riptide that actually managed to put the big guy down on his own. The rest of the first turn was spent scattering Smart Missiles around to the Marines skirting the edges of the ruins.

Turn 2 he brought his Captain, Lieutenant, Chaplain and Librarian in along with an Assault Squad, but with nowhere to drop near the tanks, he had to settled for landing on a flank with just a Fireblade and some Fire Warriors. His Captain got into the Fire Warriors and Fireblade, resulting in what I'm sure would have been an appropriately visceral death for all T'au involved. This also knocked me off one of my home objectives and gave him a slight edge on progressive objectives through the third turn. My return fire was able to clear out the Captain and Lieutenant plus some Tactical Marines and the Assault Squad. A unit of Sanguinary Guard and their Ancient were left hanging in the breeze after failing the 3D6 charge and were easy pickings for the Heavy Burst Cannon. There was a scrum in the center of the board for one of the objectives between 2 units of Breachers and 2 units of Tactical Marines (I don't think he had Scouts...) which resulted in the Breachers going down in CC after claiming only a handful of Marines.

The Riptides continued the march down the board as the Hammerheads cleared out the lingering Characters in my DZ and whittled the Blood Angels down in the center of the board. Bottom of Turn 5, there was only one Marine remaining on the center objective and he died to a flurry of Smart Missiles to finish off the game. Per Warzone rules, we rolled off for random turns and the game went to Turn 7 giving me a max points victory.

Result: Victory, 33-0

Round 2

Opponent: Carter Leach
Army: Aeldari; Skyweavers with Drukhari Venoms/Ravagers and Eldar Psykers
Mission: Assassination with Vanguard Strike

Of course...who else would I play round 2 of a tournament. Mr. Leach had ridden up with me to the event and we have a knack for facing off in the second round of RTTs. Primary mission was a Marked for Death variant while Secondary was a Relic placed on a tower in the center of the board. Carter won the roll off and went first, having to dislodge by Stealth Team in the tower to take possession of the Relic.

Like all of our games, this one was bloody right from the start. He ran his Spiritseer (Shadowseer? the Harlequin one) to engage the Stealth Team and steal the Relic out from under them. I attempted to block off as much of the board as possible to keep his Haywire bikes away from my tank which were Marked for Death. I was able to down on Ravager and a couple of Venoms turn one. He retreated with the Seer into his own DZ and brought down the Bikes just in range of my two Hammerheads not named Longstrike. One went down under a hail of Haywire mortal wounds, while the other took only a couple wounds. The Sky Ray also ate it to the third unit of Bikes on my right flank.

We ended up in a protracted shooting match that resulted in all 8 Marked units dead (but Carter had one extra Warzone KP because of Longstrike) and most of the Eldar dead with two Riptides still standing. Unfortunately, Carter held the Relic and won a Pyrrhic Victory on primary due to the extra KP off Longstrike. All in all a good game though, I'll break through against him at some point. He's been saying I'm due for awhile now.

Result: Defeat, 7-21

Round 3

Opponent: Robert Chandler
Army: Custodes Jetbikes with Guard Infantry and Blood Angels Smash Captains, Scouts
Mission: Take Everything with Dawn of War

Another rematch from the GCWA GT, many of you may know Robert from the Come the Apocalypse Podcast and GT (check them out on iTunes as well!). He had swung his primary faction over to the Custodes, utilizing 3 units of 4 Verdus Praetors and Dawneagle Captain, with the Blood Angels Smash Captain and Scouts plus the Guard Battery. I had gone up against a similar list at ATC and received a thorough ass beating, so I was itching for redemption. We rolled it up and got Dawn of War, I believe Robert seized the initiative on me as well.

My Stealth Teams were deployed right on the edge of his DZ, this was an aggressive move by me but thankfully one that worked out well as each team was reduced to a single model with a single wound from shooting. This forced Robert to commit a unit of Praetors to charge each unit and buy me time to bring my Riptides and Hammerheads to bear on the Custodes. The secondary mission was Kill Point Race where you had to achieve 6 Warzone KPs before the opponent to get a bonus 3 points. Robert killed off the two Stealth Teams, two Fire Warrior Teams and a unit of Drones for a total of 5. My return fire was devastating. Two units of Praetors were destroyed (4 WZ KP total) along with a unit of Scouts and Mortar team to give me 6 KP and win the race to six.

Robert took his remaining bikes and charged into my tanks in the middle of the board, he was able to get a Smash Captain in to destroy the Sky Ray and a Hammerhead but couldn't reach Longstrike and the other tank who were able to back away and return fire, finishing off the last unit of Praetors and leaving the shield Captain holding an objective on my far left flank. One of the Captains got in against a Riptide but I was able to kick enough wounds to Drones that the Riptide took no damage. This Captain went down as the Riptides and Coldstar moved up the right flank, killing Scouts and infantry as they went. With his Warlord unprotected, I tried to get a quick kill with the Coldstar but alas...I'm apparently incapable of killing a Company Commander with 3 melta shots. Robert used Upon Wings of Fire to try and return the favor but 5 CP and 14 attacks later, my Commander was still alive with 3 wounds.

At this point, my Riptides began their march down his DZ. The CC went down to Smart Missiles and the Captain died to Fusion. The Hammerheads finished off the Shield Captain and launched Smart Missiles into the remaining Infantry. The last Imperial fell on the 5th turn and the game continued to a 6th turn. Fortuitous for me as Robert actually held a slight lead on Primary up until the end.

Result: Victory, 24-12 

Final Standings

Once the final dice rolled, Carter was sitting in first place at 3-0, Dangli Boy Calvin Robertson was in second place with his Imperial Knights and a 3-0 record. The top 5 was round out by myself and Kyle Lefever (Dark Angels) in a tie for 3rd, and our own Jarl Adam Clem in 5th with his Space Wolves. All in all this was a really fun event and an easy drive up from Florida. I was definitely impressed by the turnout as 16 for an RTT is nothing to sneeze at. Terrain was functional and there was good LoS blocking stuff on every table which is always a plus (Smart Missiles don't carry about your "not being visible" nonsense) and it seemed like a good group of players.

Definitely looking forward to the next one! Sorry for all the weird rules questions in Round 2, Andrew...

Big thanks to the Dangli Boyz and Visions for a great event. Don't forget to check out their podcast on Podbean. And don't forget about us either! Be sure to like us on Facebook at Battle Brothers of the GCWA and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and podOmatic for all your Competitive 40k content from the Gulf Coast.

Battle Brothers of The GCWA - Episode 14 - Warhammer Fest, Q&A, Kill Teams, Climate of 40k, and Upcoming events.

Warzone Gigabytes After Action Report

A pair of the Battle Brothers went Road Tripping to Atlanta to experience their first Warzone event of the year, hosted by Gigabytes Gaming Cafe and the General Staff. It would be my first time at Gigabytes and my first time playing with the new Warzone Missions so I was excited for a long weekend of gaming.

Background

Warzone Gigabytes is (I believe) a first time event as part of the Warzone series and managed to hit a Major in their first year! So congrats to the General Staff and Gigabytes Cafe on a great turnout. For those who aren't familiar, Gigabytes is a gaming cafe and bistro in Marietta, GA where patrons can play tabletop games, get a meal, drink a beer, buy plastic crack, and just generally indulge the hobby. Fantastic store and I think it won an award for best game store in the US this past year.

Several of us from the GCWA made the five hour drive to Atlanta including Adam Clem, Mark Perry, Mike Sanchez, Ian Thornton, and myself. A few other Gulf Coast guys made it up along with the Montgomery, AL contingent (check out their new podcast, Dangli Boyz). All in all, 64 players threw down for four top spots as Warmaster (Best General), Imperial Envoy (Best Sportsman), Artisan (I think...Best Painted), and Best Overall.

Roadtrip and Night Before

Jarl Clem and I got on the road north around mid-morning, cutting through the desolate, barren land that is South Alabama (I joke, the drive is beautiful). Our goal was to get to Atlanta in time for the baseball game that night as we're both lifelong Braves fans and they were honoring one of our favorite players, Chipper Jones, that night for his induction into the Hall of Fame. This was completely unrelated to 40K but it's part of what I love about traveling to events. They become mini-vacations when you get time to break away from the table top. But that said, we had a great time, had lots of beer, got a cool plaque, Adam tried to get us kicked out (how can you be too loud at a sporting event?), great times all around. The area around the new stadium (The Battery) is a mini-entertainment district in itself and a really cool place to go and hangout if you're in Northwest Atlanta...particularly if you're a baseball fan.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we spent part of the time listening to Slaves of Darkness on the drive up, a Horus Heresy novel about the mustering of the Traitor Legions before the drive to Terra. The relevant part to me was the meeting and parting of Horus and Alpharius (you know I love me some Alpha Legion). But it was funny to see Horus and Perturabo trying to herd the cats that were the Daemon Primarchs.

List

I decided to stick with the T'au Sept Brigade as the Command Points are too good to pass up in a meta where Imperial armies never run out anyways. It was the same list as the Pensacola RTT and a slight variation off my ATC and GCWA GT lists.

Coldstar: 3 Fusion Blasters, Shield Geneator, (Warlord)

Fireblade: Pulse Rifle, Markerlight, Puretide Engram Neurochip

Longstrike: Ion Cannon, 2 Seeker Missiles, Smart Missiles

4 Strike Teams: Shas'ui w/ Markerlight, Pulse Rifles; 3x5 and 1x6

2 Breacher Teams: Shas'ui w/ Markerlight, Pulse Blasters; 2x5

2 Riptides: Heavy Burst Cannon, Smart Missiles, Counterfire Defense System, Target Lock

2 Stealth Teams (3): Shas'vre, all Burst Cannons

3 Tactical Drone Squadrons (4): Shield Drones

2 Hammerheads: Ion Cannon, 2 Seeker Missiles, Smart Missiles

Sky Ray: 6 Seeker Missiles, 2 Markerlights, Smart Missiles

Spoiler alert...I played the Search and Destroy deployment map ALL FIVE GAMES. Which was okay with me as I love that deployment, but still how are those for odds.

Day 1

Round 1

Opponent: Anthony Livesey

Army: Astra Militarum; Shadowsword and 16 Bullgryn plus artillery and infantry support

I had been hearing for weeks that Bullgryn were the 7th Edition Death Star reborn so I was anxious and interested to put that to the test. The mission primary was progressive objectives (5 of them) with Marked for Death as the secondary. He took Tallarn on the Shadowsword so it was able to outflank which is honestly how you should play a single one. The Bullgryns all deployed at the front edge of his DZ circle and were ready to jump forward into my zone on early. I played my tanks back to stay out of LoS of his Shadowsword presuming I'd go second, while leaving the Riptides forward to try and draw fire and tank shots with the drones. I'll go ahead and mention that I'd had a bit too much fun at the game the night before and it was a rough morning. With that in mind, I totally goofed on my M4D units and went with his three artillery/support tanks instead of the Infantry squads. Me being dumb...have you even been dumb? Happened to me. Ultimately wouldn't have changed the outcome though so I'm not beating myself up too much on that.

**Note: Primary was scaled off a maximum of 18 points so your margin of victory determine how many points you received. Secondary had a maximum of 9 points available and was typically scored in 3 point increments. The tertiaries were all the same: Alternate First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker. Each worth two points apiece if only one player achieved it and one point apiece if both scored it.**

So I win the roll to go first and nudge everything out to take shots on the Bullgryn why still maintaining 50% cover (Warzone cover rule). I probably made a mistake at this point by unloading all of my Seeker Missiles into a unit of Bullgryn. My thought was that I may not have a chance to return fire on the Shadowsword when it arrived so I might as well use them while I could. The result was I took out most of that squad and killed off some infantry. The Shadowsword arrived and started popping tanks on the bottom of turn 1. Over the next few turns I actually did a good job of scoring objectives and going into Turn 5, I held a 9-6 lead on primary. Unfortunately, Tony had done a great job of hunting down my vehicles, and with a Riptide dying to Bullgryns...I was in a precarious situation. A failed 3++ against a Volcano Cannon removed my last Riptide and the rout was on. Tony Scored 8 in the 5th round and 5 in the 6th to put the game away and score the victory.

Two cool moments in the game that I want to mention. My Coldstar jumped across the board in an attempt to kill his Company Commander who was regenerating CP. There was a bounty on his head and I wanted the purity seal for killing him. This little dude tanked 5 melta shots to the face with his invulnernable save...no bounty for me this game. The second was the end game sequence. I was a model away from being tabled and my Fireblade was left atop a large outcropping dueling with his Priest. The Fireblade emerged victorious and cast the body of his enemy down. Surveying the field of battle, he saw his Warriors dead or dying...the Tanks and Riptides smoldering wrecks. His last sight was the Imperial Behemoth slowly raising its cannon to take aim at rock on which he stood...

Result: Defeat, 7-27

Round 2

Opponent: Mark Hall

Army: Tyranids/GSC; Carnifex broods with Neurothropes, Genestealers, GSC characters

Mark was running a really cool list that he said he had been experimenting with, but I have to say it looked great on the table top. I believe it was 7 Carnifex (4 Shooters, 3 Shriekers) a couple Neurothropes, Lictors or Raveners leading a unit of termagaunts, and some GSC characters with a big blob of Genestealers. Again we rolled Search and Destroy, which was convenient as we had a big bowl in the middle of the table. The mission involved moving Beacons up and out of your deployment zone while cowing the opponent's in their DZ. Primary was Kill Points.

He went first and moved his Shriekers up to engage my Stealth Team in the bowl. His Genestealers ambushed in on my right flank ready to eat through some Strike Teams and attempt to get into my Sky Ray. The Stealth Team was able to survive and harass the center a bit longer and the Sky Ray flew away from the approaching horde of Genestealers. His bugs were extremely resilient due to a combination of -1 to hit (forget the upgrade) and Jormungandr (sp?) to always be in cover except when advancing/charging. Seeing the Heavy Venom Cannons in action, I knew I wanted no part of those so I sent my other Stealth Team to tie them up for a few turns which really neutered his long range firepower. *Note: Don't underestimate Stealth Teams.* The heavy hitters were able to focus down one of his CC carnifex and one of the shooters while chewing into the big squad of Genestealers.

We both gave the beacon to our Warlords and slowly escorted them around the opposite edges of the big center bowl. My Stealth Teams kept three of the Carnifex occupied for the next few turns and I was able to pick off the others rather systematically. The Genestealers went down to Smart Missiles and the GSC characters began wreaking havoc in my backlines. That being said, my Hammerheads moved out in a convoy to provide Fire Support for the Commander and his Riptide escort. Around Turn 5 we were getting short on time but I was able to draw a bead on his Warlord with the beacon and blast it and the escort away.

I was able to pull out a victory but we were pretty tight on Primaries as Mark was able to chew through all the Fire Warriors and small units. My beacon was in his DZ and I had captured his, although I had been unable to return it to his DZ, cruising me to a comfortable final score.

Result: Victory, 22-8

Round 3

Opponent: Charles Feltman

Army: Dark Angels/Blood Angels; Dark Angels Primaris gunline with Blood Angels Captains and Mephiston

Charles had a different twist on the Marine gunline that I've played against a few times. He went with the Banner Ancient surrounded by Hellblasters and Aggressors with Azrael providing the 4++ and a Darkshroud giving -1 to hit. I remember this being a 6 Objective Mission with a large LoS blocking terrain piece in the middle of the board which allowed me to protect my tanks for much of the game. I had a huge advantage in this game with my range, he wasn't going to be able to reach me with the vast majority of his weapons, even if the banner tripped on his slain models and I feel like I did a good job playing that to my advantage. He had the +1 to go first and I rolled my dice first...1...he doesn't bother rolling so I immediately roll to seize...6...good start.

The Riptides went up and around the center blocker and sat just outside of 30" to avoid return fire from the Hellblasters. The Hammerheads stayed still so that they could shoot more accurately in case I failed to get 5 Markerlights on a target. The first order of business was to remove one of the Hellblaster squads and the Darkshroud, both of which went down fairly easily, although he was able to trip the banner and shoot one of my Stealth Teams off the board in my own turn. But I was able to take down those two units and started to bleed off other Primaris units and his scouts. He responded my moving Mephiston and a Smash Captain up the board and annihilating my other Stealth Team, but by and large he was out of range of my important stuff.

Turn 2 I was able to remove most of the threats on my left flank (pending the arrival of two Smash Captains) and continued to kill off his Scouts and Primaris without much return threat. Mephiston came in along my board edge but unfortunately for Charles, failed his charge and was left hanging in the breeze. The two SmashCaptain had jumped over to deal with my Riptides but even with rerolls on one and a 3D6 charge on the other...the Angel's Wing Captain failed the charge and the Riptides gunned the other down in overwatch. At this point, the game switched over to mop up duty and I was able to win by a comfortable margin. Rough matchup but hat's off to Charles for a really fun game to finish out Day 1.

Result: Victory, 28-10

Day 2

Round 4

Opponent: Aaron Ware

Army: Necrons; Tesseract Vault, 12 Destroyers, Wraiths, Deceiver, Immortals and Crypteks

This was an interesting mission and suitably had a crazy finish. Aaron was running the Destroyer Cult with a Vault, unit of 4 Wraiths, some immortals and Crypteks to finish out the Battalion. The mission had six objectives that you could "dig" to score. In practice, this meant if you held the objective at the beginning of your turn you could roll a dice and get 1 VP on that objective, but if your dice roll was equal to or less than the turn number then the objective would disappear. Remaining objectives were worth 3 VPs at the end of the game.

Aaron gets first turn and immediately digs his objective, rolls a 1, CP rerolls it, gets another 1, so not the best start. His Vault was bounced forward by the Deceiver and started throwing out mortal wounds into my unsuspecting Fire Warriors, clearing a hole to punch through with his Destroyers. I took a little damage on my tanks but was largely out of range of the worst of his firepower. My turn 1 I pour everything I had into the Vault to get it off the field and was successful in destroying it. However, I also rolled snake eyes on the Dig objective in my DZ which really hurt me over the course of the game.

The bulk of the game turned it's attention to my right flank where the firing lines of Destroyers dueled with the Hammerheads and one of the Riptides. I was never able to really break through and grab the objective my Stealth Suits had previously occupied but he couldn't get clean shots at my Hammerheads. I began winning the attrition battle and ultimately was able to clear out the Destroyers and Wraiths. While that fight was going on the right, a smaller but more crucial fight was occurring on my far left flank between a unit of immortals and my remaining Stealth Team. The only objective to not disappear was over there and I was trying desperately to remove his ObSec units from the vicinity so I could hold it at the end of the game. This took the intervention of both a Riptide and Cryptek to determine the outcome but weight of fire carried the day and the Stealth Team settled in for the long haul.

I had a probable misplay with my Coldstar late in the game as I was  trying to make something happen to break the stalemate. The Deceiver had just died in the midfield (in CC if you can believe that...go Coldstar!) and the Commander moved up to try and get to the right flank objective (hadn't disappeared yet). I charged the Riptide into the Destroyers and the Commander into an Immortal but the Destroyers fell back and swarmed the commander. His Shield Generator was finely tuned and saved 6 of the 8 wounds but sadly the D3 damage came up as 3 for each and he went down, giving up Slay the Warlord.

Ultimately I was able to finish off the Necrons and complete the table wipe but Aaron had been scoring Objectives consistently and I hadn't been able to keep my ObSec guys alive long enough to even attempt to Dig. Holding the last Objective bumped the 6 point deficit to a 3 point which was classified as a Pyrrhic Victory and a 10-5 Primary Score. I scored 6 points on Secondary to his 3 (it was percentage Kill Points), then 4 to 2 on Tertiary to force a tie. Honestly I think it surprised us both, me thinking he had run away with the progressive objectives and him thinking the tabling would put me over the top. I'm kinda glad we were both wrong, this was a great game and a real nailbiter right down to the tallying of the scores. 

Result: Tie, 15-15

Round 5

Opponent: Will Clayton

Army: Ynnari/Eldar; Wraith Constructs (10 Blades/10 Guard), some Aspect Warriors, Yvraine and Psykers with a Wave Serpent

My last round was against Will, one of the previous showrunners of the Redstone Rumble in Huntsville, and his Ynnari. It was a very unconventional list as he was running a lot of Iyanden Wraithblade/Guard along with a Wraithlord (which he said was strictly there because it was painted and the list deadline slipped up on him). The Ynnari contingent was properly bundled in a Wave Serpent with all of his Eldar Psykers and Yvraine, plus a unit of Reapers. Some Swooping Hawks were set up Swooping - or whatever it is they do to Deep Strike. I wasn't really sure how this was going to play out, but fortunately we were playing on planet bowling ball (a beautiful bowling ball, but still not much LoS blocking) so I'd have free reign to shoot. The primary was 6 Objectives, two of which would be zeroed out by secret choice before the game began, secondary was KPs with a race to 6 for the bonus 3 points.

I seized the initiative again and slid my tanks right to clear the one LoS blocker in the center while my Riptides went right to catch the Eldar in a bit of a pincer. I was able to down the Wave Serpent and chew a big chunk out of the Wraithblades. He got into me with his Blades in his turn and they proved an incredibly resilient foe when powered up by Eldar psychic powers. It took several turns to dislodge them from my tank lines and it became particularly hairy when the Wraithguard dropped in and started popping tanks.

The game devolved into a close range shooting match with the Wraiths and Hammerheads constantly charging and falling back while the Riptides lent their firepower to the melee as well as Character hunting. I was finally able to get my bounty as a Riptide drew a clear shot on Yvraine and overkilled her with Heavy Burst Cannon fire. We were running short on time at this point and with most of the game's points decided we split time and worked out the last remaining points of contention. He had won the race on secondary and beat me 9-6 for that. I edged into a middle tier on the victory as I had good board control, giving me 12-4 on primary. We split tertiary as we'd thoroughly bled each other over the course of the game.

Great game, really tight despite the lack of LoS blocking terrain and had a great time to finish out the games!

Result: Victory, 21-16

Results and Placing

All said, I finished the event with a 3-1-1 record and a respectable 93 Battle Points, which was good for a tie at 20th overall out of 64...not bad! To check out the other winners, visit Warzone Atlanta's Facebook page or home site, but a shout-out to Stephen Mitchell for winning the title of Warmaster and an even bigger shout-out to our own Mark Perry who broke through and took home Best Overall, second in Battle Points to only the Warmaster. Fabio Van Der Merwe took home Artisan with a beautifully painted Dark Eldar (and Harlequins I believe) army. Unfortunately I'm blanking on the gentleman who won Imperial Envoy, but I know that there were two players with a perfect Sportmanship score, so if someone knows who those two players are...I'd love to give them credit!

For myself, the overall scores came in which included painting and sportsmanship and I got a nice jump up to 15th with 27/33 on the painting rubric and 26/33 on the Sportmanship rating. Not too shabby!

I want to give a special thank you to my five opponents: Tony, Mark, Charles, Aaron, and Will. You guys were awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed all five games whether they were win, loss or tie. My one criticism (and I used that term very loosely here as it's really not a gripe at all) of the event was that we had to pick favorite opponents for the sportsmanship portion. I'd love to play all of you again, you were all excellent opponents that challenged me while keeping the games fun. So my sincere thanks for contributing to a great weekend, I hope we toss dice again down the road, especially as I'll be at Warzone Atlanta.

Keep a look out for more BatReps in the near future! The next GT on the horizon is Warzone: Come the Apocalypse in Dothan, AL. We'll be bringing a large contingent so stay tuned!

Don't forget to like our Facebook Page "Battle Brothers of the GCWA" to stay up to date on our latest content. Also, jump over to iTunes or podOmatic to subscribe to the podcast so you can stay informed on all the competitive 40K news from around the Gulf Coast! Thanks for reading.

Pensacola Battle Report - The Greater Good

The Battle Brothers were fighting on multiple fronts this past weekend. Three of the crew were slugging it out in Biloxi at the Wayward Kraken while the Shas'o took his forces east to the former pirate stronghold of Pensacola.

TBS Comics Pensacola hosted its monthly ITC event and saw 12 players duke it out over the Champions Missions. The event was a Battle Points tournament which served me well as we'll discuss later in the article.

The List

First things first, here's the list I was running. It's a variation on my ATC list that attempts to diversify my heavy hitters.

++ Brigade Detachment +12CP (T'au Empire) [106 PL, 2000pts] ++

T'au Empire Sept Choice: T'au Sept

+ HQ +

Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight, Puretide engram neurochip

Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit [8 PL, 161pts]: 2. Through Unity, Devastation, 3x Fusion blaster, Shield generator, Warlord

Longstrike [10 PL, 212pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

+ Troops +

Breacher Team [2 PL, 39pts]

. 4x Fire Warrior

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse blaster, Pulse pistol

Breacher Team [2 PL, 39pts]

. 4x Fire Warrior

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse blaster, Pulse pistol

Strike Team [4 PL, 45pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 5x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

+ Elites +

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Counterfire defence system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Counterfire defence system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 84pts]

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'vre: Burst cannon

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 84pts]

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'vre: Burst cannon

+ Fast Attack +

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

+ Heavy Support +

TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 175pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 175pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

TX78 Sky Ray Gunship [8 PL, 166pts]: 2x Smart missile system, 2x Markerlight, 6x Seeker missile

The Games

Round 1

Opponent: Lindin Spragg

Army: Grey Knights

 I drew Lindin and his Grey Knights in round 1. It was his first time playing the ITC Champions Missions so we took some time at the beginning to go through how they played and what secondaries were ideal to take. I've got to say, his list actually did an excellent job of denying secondary objectives so I decided to go with Recon, Old School and Headhunter as those were really the only objectives I could max out. His army consisted of a fully armed Stormraven, a Grandmaster Nemesis Dreadknight, 3 Strike Squads, a unit of Paladins, Draigo, Voldus, and a couple extra characters. We were playing Mission 1 so there were six objectives on the board. He won the +1 to go first easily, but then I won the roll, which he then seized initiative. So it all worked out how it should have!

His first turn he moved the Stormraven up to the middle of the board and used Astral Aim to shoot through walls. It was able to remove a few squads of Fire Warriors as well as some shield drones who sacrificed themselves for the Riptides. My first turn didn't have much in line of sight apart from the Stormraven so I applied markerlights liberally and the Sky Ray was able to down it with a single volley of seeker missiles. He deep struck his Paladins and character in on my left flank on turn 2 and was able to remove a Hammerhead off the drop. I returned fire and was able to clear off the Dreadknight and Paladins. At that point, it was largely clean up as I used Smart Missiles to clear the remaining Strike Squads out leaving just a couple of characters. We were around the time limit at that point and he conceded.

Result: Victory. 36-10

Round 2

Opponent: Doug Kus

Army: Nurgle Chaos Soup

My second round was against my good buddy Doug who was rocking his Nurgle army (always beautifully painted) with the centerpiece being the Cyclops below. It was backed up by 3 Bloat Drones, a Daemon Prince, 3 units of Obliterators, and Abaddon. Low model count, but deadly and survivable.

I manage to get first turn and focus all of my firepower on the One Eyed Monster with bad intentions. Five Markerlights, 12 Seeker Missiles and the Ionheads were more than up to the task and managed to take him down top of Turn 1. I felt good with just the Bloat Drones and Daemon Prince on the board and began to move forward to the center of the three objectives. Unfortunately I was never able to take down the Bloat Drones to provide a fire lane to the Daemon Prince. 

Bottom of turn 2, Doug was able to take advantage of a hole in my screen and drop all 9 Obliterators and Abaddon on my right flank. They promptly began removing vehicles and slowly but surely began swinging the game into Doug's favor. The game was a meat grinder as the Riptides were left to deal with the Obliterators and the Bloat Drones in the middle. It was a close game but I was never able to regain the center objective after the second turn and the game slipped away due to the Disgusting Resilience of Nurgle.

Result: Defeat. 19-23

Round 3

Opponent: Carter Leach

Army: Harlequins/Dark Eldar

Forgot to take pictures this game, so here's one from Rd 2

As so often happens at TBS events, I finally ran into Mr. Carter Leach...the Man, the Myth, the Legend. Known at various times by such monikers as The Captain and Mr. 1%. It was the first time we had squared off in awhile and he was rocking a new Harlequin/Aeldari list that utilized 12 Skyweavers, 3 Ravagers and a handful of Eldar psykers. It was a fast moving, hard hitting list with widespread -1 to hit abilities. Suffice to say, -1 to hit armies cause me a lot of trouble and against an opponent like Carter I knew I'd have to try and capitalize quickly to gain the upper hand.

I again somehow went first (I can't remember the last time I actually had +1 to go first) and turned my guns downrange. My goal was to take out the one unit of Skyweavers on the board and down at least one Ravager. Well I goofed... I declared all my Sky Ray's shots against the Skyweavers with no markerlights on the unit, assuming I could get at least one and explode it for D3+1 with the stratagem. Well 2s and 3s to hit don't get the job done so I was essentially playing 7th Edition again and snapfiring. Still managed to get 2 hits but he saved the wounds. I was able to take out the Ravager but I'd left myself in very poor position for the counterpunch.

Carter responded by Dooming and Jinxing one of my Riptides before removing its drones and then pouring all of his firepower into it. I don't remember whether it died on turn 1 or not, but it was certainly dead by turn 2...depriving me of a huge source of firepower. As the game wore on, I was able to clear out the Dark Eldar vehicles but the Skyweavers dropping in from the webaway removed tanks with their Haywire Cannons. Failing to capitalize turn one really left me strung out and exposed, giving Carter an excellent opening to begin picking apart usually sturdy units. It turned into a solid game but I was only able to contest objectives for the first couple of turns before I was pushed back towards my own DZ.

Result: Defeat. 18-27

Results

Going 1-2 wasn't what I was hoping for in a tournament where I was prepping for a GT, but I was able to finish the event with a healthy 73 Battle Points which left me in 2nd Place overall! Carter ran away with the event, scoring over 100 points total, while Warren Watts and Doug were nipping on my heels to take 3rd and 4th, respectively. All in all, it was another great event at TBS and got the competitive juices flowing for Warzone Gigabytes the following weekend.

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