40k GT Heat 1 Tournament Report! Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my tournament report for the independent UK 40k GT Heat 1! Part 1 is here if you haven't read it, and my list is here. The draws for round 4 were completed Saturday evening before we left, so I knew I'd be playing Matt Edmonds and his Daemon army on Sunday morning.

Game 4

Matt plays for Team Scotland at the ETC, so I knew I was in for a tough match. He'd brought Daemons, with a twist on the classic "Screamer Council" build:

The game was The Relic/Spoils of War on Dawn of War deployment. Something worth noting was that the Relic was played exactly like a normal objective that could be moved- so it was possible to contest within 3" if it was picked up, and it was even possible to claim it with ObSec if a non-ObSec unit had picked it up!

Pre Game

I'd heard a lot about Plague Drones but had never actually faced them before, so this would be a good challenge. They looked very durable, with 3 wounds, toughness 5, Shrouded and Feel No Pain from the Herald. Matt explained that with clever use of the Beam power from Fateweaver he could increase their Feel No Pain save too, to a max of 2+!
When playing Daemons it's always good to try and kill Fateweaver as soon as possible, and in my 2nd game on Saturday I'd already made the mistake of letting him fly around killing tanks. The Screamer council is a different matter, and I just needed to get it in melee with the Wraithknight to lock it down permanently.

Deployment and Eldar Turn 1

Matt wins both roll-offs and sets up the council and Fateweaver behind the large rock, while the Drones spread along the the edge of his line, hoping to tie stuff up and glance out some tanks with a few multiple assaults. My deployment is fairly symmetrical, spreading out my firepower so I can get shots everywhere, but especially on the Council should I seize...

So naturally, I seize! I waste no time in lining up shots on the council- I can't see many heralds, but I can thin out the screamers and make it more vulnerable late  game. My whole army bar the Wraithknight shoots the council, and we have some crazy dice where Matt's Portal herald fails 5 Look Out Sir rolls in a row, but then passes all 5 Invulnerable saves!  Meanwhile, my Wraithknight jumps up onto the hill and can just see Fateweaver. 1 wound goes through, and despite a 3+ cover save with the reroll...

...Fateweaver is sent back to the warp, for Warlord and First Strike. Result!

Daemons Turn 1
Matt's Plague Drones advance and try to glance out a Night Spinner but only manage 1 hull point. The council gets the Grimoire off and moves around the side. This turn is a bit quieter- Matt's psychic phase is naturally crazy as he casts all sorts of powers, but the only one of note is a Beam that explodes my red Serpent for First Strike!

Eldar Turn 2 Onwards
Not many photos this time unfortunately- it was such a great game and we didn't stop until the end.


Turn 2 I was able to butcher 5 of the Plague drones with Serpent Shields and the Wraithknight, while my Hawks tried to kill off some Horrors. I started to take a steady lead in the Maelstrom mission too, which I maintained for the entire game. Matt glances out the Green Serpent with the remaining Plague Drones, while the council beams and summons its way around the board. The Nurgle Herald splits off to charge 5 Dire Avengers, who turn on their secret ninja abilities- despite needing 5s to hit from Fear and then 6s to wound, they cause 2 wounds and Matt fails both of his saves and FNP!
Eventually the Screamer Council gets stuck in melee with the Wraithknight, but Matt is able to summon enough Drones and Horrors to completely cover the Relic, and with the advantage of last turn he can win the Primary, despite my best efforts to fly in with ObSec tanks. However I win the Secondary and Tertiary, resulting in a 10-10 draw!

Post Game

This was really a great game against a great opponent. It was really in the balance at the end, and Matt played really well despite an early setback with the loss of Fateweaver. Plague Drones do seem like a strong unit, but unfortunately my large volume of high strength Ignores Cover fire, combined with some poor FNP rolls, pretty much took them out of the game on turn 2. They're great for summoning though, as they're pretty mobile. Jetpack Cavalry is also the most unusual unit type I've seen!

Game 5
My 5th Game was against Dan Sackett. I'd seen him playing earlier, so had an idea of what to expect, but 30 Warp Spiders look a lot more menacing once they're set up! His full list is below:

The game was The Scouring/Deadlock on Vanguard Strike. The Scouring points were modified, so there were 2x1, 2x2 and 2x3 for the 6 objectives.

Pre Game
Dan's Reaverstar looked menacing, and they had Invisibility, so they'd need to be dealt with by the Night Spinners. My plan was simple- kill the Warp Spiders as soon as possible before the Reavers arrive, and then focus on them. I also needed to thin out the Jetbikes as much as possible, to stop Dan stealing the Primary. Overall the Primary looked good, but the Secondary was maybe going to go his way with all the Jetbikes.

 Deployment

I chose this corner to stop Dan hiding behind the big rock, and clustered my tanks. He lined up all the Warp Spiders, and after I measured some threat ranges I chose to let him go first!

Game turn 1

Dan's Spiders all sprint forward as fast as they can- 20 hiding behind the rock on my right and 10 in the tower to the left. His Wraithknight spiked a Distort on mine, but luckily I just passed my cover save.
In my turn, I lined up as many shots as I could. The Night Spinners both barraged the tower, taking advantage of the new 7th Edition rules and killing 4. The Serpents killed another 8 from the second squad, while the Wraithknight got into melee and swept a full squad of 10 for First Strike!

Again there are no more pictures this time.

Turn 2 is quite quiet as no Reavers arrive until turn 3. The remaining Warp Spiders try to hurt some tanks, but I Jink and then finish them all off.

The Reavers arrive, and Shriek my wounded Wraithknight to death with a 15! Slay the Warlord to Dan. However they fail Invisibility with 6 dice, so in the following turn I reduce them to 2 bikes and 2 Farseers. By the end of the game both Farseers are reduced to 1 wound and all the Reavers are dead, thanks to the Night Spinners. Dan has a commanding lead in the Secondary, but I've got the Primary locked down by killing 4 Fast Attack choices and claiming 7 points of Objectives. The Tertiaries are a draw- I can't quite finish Dan's Warlord Farseer, and he didn't get First Strike. We both get Linebreaker, because Eldar. The final score is 12-8 to me!

Post Game

That was a brutal game- losing 22 Warp Spiders early on meant Dan had to use his Reaverstar to take down my units, but then he failed Invisibility too! Despite that, Dan's Shriek meant he was able to control a lot of the board with his Wraithknight, and my Dire Avengers couldn't quite get it done fast enough to kill him. He was also able to hide his jetbikes well, and out of Scatter Laser range to limit my firepower. This game put me on 68 points, a score I was almost certain would qualify. As for the Maelstrom, Deadlock is very prone to first draw skews- taking 6 cards turn 1 and having all 1 pt/difficult missions vs 2 point/easier ones can really decide the mission early on.

Game 6
My last last game was against Dan Sargent's Eldar/Tau:

The final game was Crusade with 4 Objectives/Contact Lost, on Hammer and Anvil.

Pre Game
I was really tired by this point, but powered through. Dan's army looked pretty strong on paper, and his summoning Farseer would be a pain, but I felt like I had most of the tools to deal with his list. However, this was not to be...

Deployment
Dan won the roll and chose to play first. With hindsight, I should have split my forces to deploy far away from Buffmander and the Missile Crisis, preserving another tank. As it happened, I didn't and this would prove costly.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures during this game, as it went very badly from the start and threw me on a tilt. Dan's first turn saw him kill the red Serpent, and the Orange one, and also manage a single Distort to kill my Wraithknight.
In return I was able to kill 1 Serpent, and the other Jinked. That was not the reply I was hoping for. Despite my deployment mistake, I still had a chance at the game but unfortunately I didn't make a couple of clutch plays- the Fire Dragons failed a charge at close range onto a Wraithknight, and my 20 Dire Avengers were firing marshmallow discs, unable to rend the Wraithknights for 2 turns. The game went this way until turn 6, where he Stunned my last remaining Serpent eliminating any chance of points for me and we called it there, with a 20-0 victory to him.

Post Game

As much as my dice weren't great, I also didn't play very well, and Dan did. He used the summoning Farseer to keep the pressure up all game, and his Wraithknights overwhelmed my lines. I did eventually kill them both, but I couldn't kill them and Buffmander's unit, who were able to kill a tank 4 turns in a row. Meanwhile I was tired, and it really showed- my target priority was poor, and my positioning could also have been better. However throughout the whole game Dan was a great sport, and very gracious in his (overwhelming) victory.

So that was my last game of the event! We had a short break while the final standings were calculated, and then the qualifiers were announced:

So I'd qualified! It was closer than I would have liked, but I was still happy with 9th place. I also think I'm a better player for the event, despite that poor final game.

I'd make a few changes to the list:

I'd remove the Night Spinners, Autarch, and Swooping Hawks, and put in a Summoning Bike Farseer with the Spirt Stones of Anath-Lan, a 2nd Wraithknight, and some more Ghostwalk Matrices & Cannons on the tanks.

I didn't need that much anti-infantry all the time from the Night Spinners and Hawks, but a 2nd Wraithknight would have definitely helped me score bigger wins in most of the games. Summoning is so good too- you can lock down the backfield early doors, then use Horrors and Daemonettes to dominate midfield and clear out infantry (effectively replacing the Hawks and Night Spinners).

So that's my first Tournament Report! It was a great event, and all my opponents were great players and great sports. Even though the standard of competition was pretty high, everyone there was much more relaxed than last year and it was an awesome atmosphere. I'm already looking forward to the final, and I hope to see all of my opponents there- they all qualified (including Rich through a Best Painted nomination).

Moving forward, I'm starting to play more Warmachine/Hordes with my Legion of Everblight, so I think there should be a couple of battle reports soon. There's also a Warhammer Fantasy escalation league starting at my club in the next 2 weeks, so that will inspire me to paint up my Wood Elves and get playing with them!
I'll still be playing 40k and a bit of X-Wing too, but hopefully the content of the blog will become a more even spread across the different systems.

Thanks very much for reading! If you've got any questions or comments, let me know beneath!

SimonW