Tito's Huzzah Hobbies 40K Tournament Recap
Clemente Berrios
What's up fellow 40K enthusiasts, hopefully your week is going well. I just wanted to share a brief recap/ lessons learned of my three games at the Huzzah Hobbies 40K Tournament last weekend.
Before I begin, I want to say that I highly recommend this tournament to everyone in our group. The store is spacious with tons of tables(the tournament is up to 32 players). Phil (the TO) is very knowledgeable of the game and runs a tight but hilarious ship. He actually helped run the NOVA 40K GT last month.
I ran a White Scars Battle Company for the Skilled Rider/+1 to Jink/Outflank and Khan was my warlord to give scout to all my rhino's/bikes. I've attached a copy of the list in case you wanted to know. It's not perfect by any means, but I was dying to play a dreadnought and kept the list to models I actually owned.
Round 1 - White Scars Battle Company vs Ultramarine Battle Company
It totally threw me off. Instead of moving forward with aggressive play and dominating objectives early with rhinos/scouts/drop pods, I played it cautious staying back afraid of the grav onslaught that was sure to come. This was my first of many mistakes this game. He hit 3 of 4 direct hits on his drop pods taking several objectives. Had I moved forward like I originally planned, I would have negated him this early advantage.
He also placed his warlord (a Terminator with Cataphracti Armor/slow and purposeful) and his Chaplain (with the Hunters eye/ignore cover)with his command squad who all carried grav cannons. With slow and purposeful and ignore Cover, his grav fired to full effect wiping out and entire bike unit upon landing. Fortunately, as the game progressed, I was able to clear drop pod after drop pod with my bikers with melta, retaking several of the objectives he originally took.
The game took a critical turn when I detached Khan to take another objective/secondary point to potentially win me the game. Unfortunately I failed to notice his command squad JUST in range with their ignore cover grav... needless to say the Imperium will miss Khan. We ended up tying on primary points and tertiary points, but the two secondary objectives (worth 4 points) he negated (he got all his) cost me the game. Great opponent, super fun game.
Final Score: 15 -11 (Loss)
Round 2 - White Scars Battle Company - Orks with Stompa
My opponent was a grade school teacher who reminded me a lot of Trevor (always smiling/joking). He was running the green horde with a Stompa for support. His warlord was inside the Stompa.
Having learned from my mistake last game, I played super aggressive. I got first turn again and scouted up the field, infiltrating my scouts deep into enemy lines, threatening to contest my opponents objectives. I alpha striked pretty hard, popping all his trucks/mobility, and putting a dent into his endless ork army(He rivals Steve with the amount of models he put on the table). I left his Stompa alone and focused on his supporting cast.
Unfortunately for my opponent, with his transports/mobility gone, he was forced to play aggressive with his stompa to try to halt my advance. By turn 4 I had effectively moved up the field and covered every objective. The Stompa did some work(the D weapons/Str10 Ap1 blasts were ridiculous), but by turn 4 it was the only thing left in his army. I was able to max out my primary/secondary/tertiary points for a max score.
Final Score: 25 - 8 (Win)
Round 3 - White Scars Battle Company vs. Tau with Assassins Allies
This was an interesting game. He was running 2 sets of the 4 assassins, plus a maxed out Tau Optimized Stealth Cadre which 3 Ghostkeels, 2 units of Stealth suits, and a crap ton of stealth drones (giving them 2 up cover in the open). Thankfully my opponent was extremely patient as I asked detailed questions on what each assassin was capable of.
Being a Tau player myself, I knew the damage output potential of 3 Ghostkeels firing at the same unit (special rule lets them always hit rear facing on vehicles regardless of their facing). He let me know he took out a knight in one turn only using the Ghostkeels shooting in his first game. If his goal was to scare me, it succeeded.
He won first turn but conceded it back to me so he could counter deploy. I think this was a mistake on his part, since nothing in his army was objective secure. Not making the same mistake of my first game, I threw caution to the wind and aggressively scouted up the board taking all but one of the objectives + relic on my first turn.
I kept Khan and my command squad out of LOS of his robots, but within striking distance of a turn 2 assault. This tactic made my opponent play his Ghostkeel more cautiously. He still blew up a rhino/droppod every turn, but kept retreating back into his table corner while I inched Khan closer and closer to his ultimate prey. This negated any attempt on his part to try and capture any objectives.
His assassins were fortunately not that hard to deal with. Even though they hit like trucks, they were surprisingly squishy. Even though they had three wounds and a 4+ invul save(plus other shenanigans), I killed one or two every turn.
By turn 4 I had maxed out my primary objectives (Objectives and Relic), and his only way out was to try and table me… which he almost did.
Knowing I had to lock up his rampaging Ghostkeels before they shot everything off the table, I called upon the know depleted Command Squad with Khan. The cat and mouse game Khan was playing with the robots succeeded in keeping them out of the objective game, but it was not without key losses. The squad consisted of just Khan and his apothecary.
My Opponent moved his Ghostkeels towards the center of the board with a better vantage point to take out the rest of my units. He didn’t think I would be foolish enough to charge him. Apparently my foolishness knows no bounds. I charged his big robots, jinking through his ridiculous amount of over watch. Unfortunately my Apothecary was not fast enough, going down with a blistering crash.
Striking at Initiative 5, Khan unsheathed his Power Sword, Moonfang, and proceeded to land two wounds (one of them was a 6 for instant death), felling a drone and instant killing a Ghostkeel. Thanks to the Emperor, his Iron Halo held true and saved 2 out of the 3 Invul saves from the remaining robots. Having won combat by 4, the robots broke and Khan was able to catch the xenos and run them all through. My opponent graciously bowed out after that, having only 2 Culexis models left on the table.
Final Score: 25 – 11 (Win)
I ended up placing second in the event, mainly because I was able to max out my points round 2 and 3. I also got lucky with only one person staying undefeated throughout the 3 rounds.
Hope you enjoyed the write up! Happy Wargaming.
Tito
Stephen Duall
Trevor Aleo
I really need to get my ass to one of these tournaments. Keep having random events (friend's 25th birthday, tournaments, etc) stand in the way. I'll be hitting one for sure, especially considering how good a time you had, Tito. We need to start hitting these things in more numbers so we can keep promoting Victory. Next one I'm free, I will be attending with maximum zeal.
Even if you're shot off the board you still have bikes (in my case) or bikes/rhinos (in yours) to zip around while your pods accumulate points and suck up opposition fire.
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