Warhammer 40k Tournament, 22.11.2015

The tournament we've been preparing for for such a long time has finally come to pass at our local gaming store!

Tournament setup

Ruleset:

• modified ETC tournament scoring rules (but nothing else, so no list restrictions for example)
• 1500 points

3 games for everybody, with the following mission set:

• Game 1:
• Eternal War: Crusade - 4 Objectives
• Malstrom of War: Contact Lost
• Deployment: Vanguard Strike
• Game 2:
• Eternal War: The Relic
• Malstrom of War: Tactical Escalation
• Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
• Game 3:
• Eternal War: The Emperor's Will
• Malstrom of War: Deadlock
• Deployment: Dawn of War

 Armies:

• Iron Hands
• Blood Angels
• Khorne Daemonkin
• Tau
• Ultramarines
• Imperial Fists + Inquisition
• Necrons
• Space Wolves
• Eldar + Dark Eldar
• Chaos Daemons 

So nice and varied, with only half of the participants playing Space Marine variants.
I assembled the cheesiest list that I could think of using my Chaos Daemons codex: the Flying Circus that I have been refining for some time. This is the same list that I used in my last game:

Chaos Daemons: Unbound

• Kairos Fateweaver, warlord
• Be'lakor
• 2x Daemon Prince of Nurgle, armor, wings, level 3 Psyker, Exalted Gift, Greater Gift
• Herald of Tzeentch, level 2 Psyker
• 10-man Pink Horrors

So room for lots of Psychic shenanigans.
The problem was that everybody did the same thing with their own codex :D

The terrain was set up beforehand by the Judge.

 
Let's get down to the games.

Game 1 

Opponent: Khorne Daemonkin

I have already played a game against this player and list: Chaos Space Marines/Chaos Daemons vs Khorne Daemonkin, 10.11.2015 The only change-up was that this time, the Chaos Lord was the Warlord.

So obviously, I proceeded to disregard everything that I learned during that game, and not give my Nurgle Princes Baleswords for Instant Death.

Deployment

My opponent won the roll-off, and I did not want to steal the initiative.

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 1.

An uneventful turn, with everything zipping forward or camping on objectives. I have sneakily placed everything just out of charge range.

Chaos Daemons, turn 1.

Fire everything!
At least that's what I would have said, if I had anything to fire. So I swooped forwards with Kairos, proceeded to Vector Strike and unleash a Psychic barrage, with the Nurgle Princes moving into charge range and trying some other Psychic stuff. Needless to say, I have barely managed to scratch the Bloodthirster. So I charged it with both Princes. One had Fleshbane, the other something else, so they had to well, right? Right?

Khorne Daemonkin, turn 2.

One Prince died instantly; the other survived due to being outside the challenge. That, however, was soon rectified, as the Bloodcrushers charged in.
The Helldrake, Terminators and Bloodletters all arrived from reserves, and I only had half my army left. Oh well...

Chaos Daemons, turn 2.

I had to move in Be'lakor to kill the Bloodthirster. I also got some help from the Portalglyph. Things were not looking good, however, with not much to survive, fight and capture objectives.
Even worse, I couldn't get off Invisibility.

Turn 3.

The price of failure was soon to be paid.

At least the Bloodletters failed their charge through difficult terrain.

But Be'lakor was left at 1 wound, with no more Biomancy spells to heal him up. Not even the summoned Daemonettes could pull me through this one.

Turn 4.

Be'lakor died in a hail of Bolter fire. The Bloodletters did their job by annihilating my last bastion - the Horrors and the Herald. The Daemonettes held back the Posessed, but the Chaos Lord had already become a Daemon Prince and a Bloodthirster due to the Axe of Ruin. In a last desperate attempt, Kairos summoned a squad of Plaguebearers to get Behind Enemy Lines.

Turn 5.

By this point, it was all going downhill. Fortunately, I did manage to catch a break - somewhat. The Plaguebearers held on, with 1 living through to the end of the game for Linebreaker. 2 separate units of Horrors held on, reduced to 1 model each, to deny additional kill points. With a lucky shot, Kairos exploded the Soul Grinder, then destroyed the temporary Bloodthirster with a 3-charge Flickering Fire. However, I was way behind in points... the match ended 19-1.

This loss pretty much wrecked my morale, especially since it was my own fault. Nevertheless, after lunch break, it was time to proceed to...

Game 2

Opponent: Necrons

Well...
I've never played Necrons before, but I was somewhat familiar with what they could do.
Nothing could prepare me for this.
The army list was, of course, a Decurion detachment, with 2 Ghost Arks with 10 Warriors each, 5 Immortals with a Lord in a Scythe, Spyder/3 Wraiths/3 Scarabs, Triarch Stalker with 2 units of Triarch Praetorians.
I got first turn, and I wasn't going to let go of the advantage.

Daemons, turn 1.

Kairos swooped forward and got some Psychic powers off, killing a Wraith and two Scarabs. Be'lakor is up front - soon to regret that, with Invisibility not going off. The two Nurgle Princes are hiding in ruins.

Necrons, turn 1.

The Triarch formation ganged up on Be'lakor. Rerolling to hit and to wound left him at 1 wound at the end of the turn. Bad start.
Tomb Blades zipped up on the other side (not visible here).

Daemons, turn 2.

This was the turn to fail all psychic tests. I tried Summoning with Kairos; failed. I tried Invisibility with Be'lakor; failed. I charged in with my Nurgle Prince, desperate to salvage the situation; but Be'lakor still died. At least the other Prince took care of the jetbikes (bottom left).

Necrons, turn 2.

The Triarch formation gangs up and kills the Daemon Prince. The end.

Daemons, turn 3.

Summoning with Kairos. Fails. Summoning with the Horrors. Fails. Well, not completely. I managed to wound myself with Perils of the Warp. Yay.

Necrons, turn 3.

The Ghost Ark in the bottom left holds a Skyfire Nexus; taking Kairos down to 1 wound. Fortunately, he stays in the Air. The Scythe comes in and pounds the remaining Daemon Prince, leaving him at 1 wound. The Triarch Praetorians move on the Horrors, but do not make it to charge distance.

Daemons,  turn 4.

I turned Kairos around and moved towards my own lines at full speed. I needed to drop something in front of the Praetorians. I went for Bloodletters. Perils. Roll 1. Kairos dies. The Bloodletters mishap. Roll 1. They all die.
At this point I had two squads of Horrors and two Heralds (courtesy of Sacrifice and the Portalglyph), and 1 Daemon Prince at 1 wound. I killed two Wraiths and 4 Triarch Praetorians total. I surrendered. 20-0.

At this point, I was tired and disappointed. I felt that the dice have really let me down during the last game, and that there was nothing that I could have done to make a difference. Oh well. Maybe I can salvage at least something. On to...

Game 3

Opponent: Eldar/Dark Eldar

I have found a similarly exhausted opponent, so truly, it was time for a fun game. We already played games before (everything vs Eldar from this list). He knew my list already; and I knew his. It was a variation on what I've already seen:

• Dire Avengers, Swooping Hawks, Guardians with Missile Launcher, Cabalite Warriors
• Farseer on Jetbike
• Wraithblades in Raider
• Spiritseer, Archon and Wraithguard with D-scythes in Wave Serpent
• Crimson Hunter Exarch
• Aegis Defense Line

I no longer had the energy to keep taking pictures; but here goes.

Turn 1.

As expected, the Raider zipped forward to get the Wraithblades into melee. Hawks went forward to capture objectives and support the Farseer. Everything camped back behind cover.
Hilariously, the intent here was to set up the Aegis Defense Line with the Guardians and Avengers on the Emperor's Will objective. However, they got set up on objective 4, leaving objective 6 and the Emperor's Will with only the Cabalites.

OK, so everything went down totally as expected. I got everybody up in the air to avoid the incoming D-flamers. Psychics failed to destroy the Raider. I summoned Daemonettes for objective holding. Then the Wraithblades got out and wrecked the Horrors. And the Wave Serpent arrived via Deep Strike, disgorged the Wraithguard, and they - lacking a better target - murderized the summoned Daemonettes.
The following turn I landed everybody (except Kairos, of course). For once, the Warp Storm aided me, summoning Bloodletters. I put them on an objective for extra points.
Things went on smoothly. I killed the Wraithblades with the Nurgle Princes. Be'lakor went ahead and murdered the Guardians and Avengers (Psychic Scream for the win). Kairos killed the Cabalites, leaving the Bloodletters to capture the opposing Emperor's Will. I evaded the D-flamers, where ever they went, racking up points in the meantime.
Hilarity ensued all the time. The Farseer charged the Portalglyph with S3 Armorbane, swinging at it for 2 turns to no effect. The Raider suffered an ungodly amount of punishment, until a lucky pen result immobilized it and got rid of the Jink save. It died next turn. Be'lakor was left at 1 wound after taking a lot of firepower to the face (and not getting off Invisibility). The Archon then charged Be'lakor, tanked the hits with 2++ and stabbed him in the face. The Portalglyph spewed forth squad after squad of Pink Horrors, one of them even getting Possession. Kairos shot 4d6 Flickering Fire snapshots at the zooming flyer, getting it down to 1 HP.
Soon, it was turn 5, then 6, and it was time to get serious again.



So the Eldar tried the following: Wave Serpent moved to their deployment zone and the Wraithguard flamed the Bloodletters. The Emperor's Will was theirs. Then the Spiritseer and the Farseer were left guarding my own objective. I had one turn to murder them.
So I charged them each with a Nurgle Prince. Some 4++ saved were failed, and they died a horrible death.
I won by points at the end of turn 6.

In the mean time...

The Blood Angels advance under a withering barrage of Tau firepower.

The Space Wolves hurry into assault against the unyielding Necrons.

The Iron Hands have brought 3 Stalker tanks to stem the flow of the enemy...

... but the Ultramarines are on to their heretical ways!

The aftermath

After the third match, the points were tallied. The final ordering of the players:

1. Iron Hands
2. Necrons
3. Tau
4. Ultramarines
5. Khorne Daemonkin
6. Imperial Fists + Inquisition
7. Blood Angels
8. Eldar + Dark Eldar
9. Chaos Daemons
10. Space Wolves