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 1Opponent: 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 ChandlerArmy: 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.
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