A new gaming cafe, GamesHub, has opened in St Neots. It’s a super place, and I’m taking part in a 1000 point Warhammer 40,000 tournament they’re running and so the 267th Neotian Saints are marching to war again. I have a moment to write down some thoughts. I’m doing this after my round 5 match, so there’s more detail as I remember more of the more recent games!
Round 1 – Steve’s Tyranids
Leman Russ Tank Commanders are great. They’re tough, have a lot of wounds, and can kick out an awful lot of damage. However, they’re also expensive and a massive target. When one is destroyed before it’s even fired a shot, you’ve essentially lost a quarter of your thousand point army from the start, and it’s an uphill battle from there. Fortunately, I still had another one with a ‘nid-munching Punisher Gatling Gun, but it was only lucky rolls that kept me alive.
I’ve ended up trying two regular Leman Russes. For another seventy points, you get twice as many wounds on the same chassis, and in different places on the board. You lose the orders, but you are firing twice as much.
Round 2 – Stephen’s Blood Angels
I lost this game, as I recall, because Stephen was able to get some a couple of units in my lines on deployment, take out my Manticore and one of my transports, and generally cause havoc. My list was a battalion of Scions and a patrol of guard, with the Scions starting in Taurox Primes. At some point, I need to trying using the Taurox Primes just as a weapons platform; I put Scions in them, which there’s no need for on the smaller board and you essentially lose a round of shooting. I only had one squad of Guard, meaning that I was struggling to just cover objectives.
Round 3 – Gary’s Drukhari
Drukhari are a strong faction and Gary’s a strong player, so this was always going to be a tough game. The Dark Lances made short work of my armour, and the Raiders and Reavers dropped enough troops to, well, completely destroy me.
Round 4 – Chris H’s Chaos Marines
Vengeance for Cadia on a Leman Russ Demolisher is really good against Chaos. Add in Hail of Fire for max shots, and – admittedly at the cost of three CP – you’re suddenly kicking out an enormous amount of damage. I won the roll to go first and, especially as the shorter board meant that I could get in range on the first turn, I kicked out a lot of damage. The Demolisher promptly became target #1, but I had another Leman Russ with a battle cannon. And a Basilisk. And a Manticore.
Round 6 – Jim’s Tyranids
Jim brought a real monster mash list, using Crusher Stampede. With a few things in deep strike, he started with six models on the table. I started with sixty infantry, two indirect fire weapons, and two tanks. I was able to screen Jim out from deep striking in my lines, and essentially shot him off the board. Despite that, the match was very close on points – I didn’t move out of my half of the board because I was worried about gribblies appearing in my lines and then I had a wall of Tyranids in my way. Meanwhile, Jim had been racking up points. Jim also failed a charge roll that he really needed to make, and my Demolisher lasted for two rounds on one wound thanks to the 2+ save. It was only some judicious Move! Move! Move! orders that let me get into table quarters and score objectives that gave me the win. Based on that, I made some changes for my next match. Although it had been useful for making sure of my screening, I had one or two squads of guard essentially not doing anything. The Basilisk had also been underwhelming, so I rejigged the list. The basilisk went, two squads of guard were replaced by two squads of Scions, the company commanders were demoted to platoon commanders, and Yarrick and a Tempestor Prime joined the force.
Round 5 – Matt’s Necrons
I actually played this after the round 6 game because of scheduling. The first round was us doing a little bit of a dance around each other, keeping things out of line of sight. However, as I had more troops on the board, I was able to raise banners and be in three quarters of the table for secondaries, and then drop in Scions on turn 2 (although right in one corner, as one solitary Necron Warrior survived my first round attack’s and. The Manticore earned its points back again, particularly with Yarrick nearby as a way of re-rolling 1s. Yarrick is an expensive way of doing this, but he’s useful in case anything does get into the back lines, and the Master of Ordnance’s similar ability doesn’t apply to Leman Russ tanks and has to be on targets over 36″ away, which is essentially nothing on the smaller, 1000 point boards.
Matt brought the C’Tan Shard of the Nightbringer. I popped the occasional shot at it, generally when I had nothing else to shoot at. Realistically, I wasn’t going to be able to destroy it, and it was only some lucky morale rolls that kept me holding a key objective. However, much as with my Leman Russ Tank Commanders, the Nightbringer is an amazing model with amazing rules, but costs a lot of points. A third of Jim’s army was taken up in that one model, and it meant that I could focus down some of the other threats. I had two Leman Russes and the Manticore in Yarrick’s Aura for most of the battle. Combined with Direct Onslaught, the Manticore was able to take out almost all the main melee threat – a big squad of Skorpekh Destroyers – in one volley before they could close to range, and I’d taken out the other worry – a pair of Lokhust Heavy Destroyers – that were a threat to my tanks.
We wrapped at the end of round three and quickly played out the rest of the game as Matt was left with the Nightbringer and a couple of bits I would easily deal with. I wouldn’t have been able to touch the Nightbringer, who would have been scoring primaries and secondaries, but not at fast enough a rate as I only had to sit on two objectives to score fifteen points in each of the last rounds.