40K: Battleforge January Tournament Results (IG)
Hi all, Jwolf here.
We had our first Heavy tournament of the year last Saturday and actually had to turn a player away, because there is only space for 36 players in the store. That is a testament to the turnout for the Battleforge Games tournament series; there are GTs that have lower turnouts than the monthly events at Battleforge.
Here is my army list:
Imperial Guard 2000 Points
HQ:
Company Command Squad, 3x Melta, Medic, Carapace
Bodyguard, Master of Ordnance
Colonel “Iron Hand” Straken
Mounted in a Chimera, TML & HHF
Lord Commissar, Powerfist
Ministorium Priest, Shotgun & Eviscerator
Elite:
Le Soldat Marbo
3 Ratlings
Troops:
Veterans, 3x Melta, Lascannon, Carapace
Sergeant, Powerfist
Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad, 4x Flamer
Mounted in a Chimera, TML & HHF
Infantry Squad, Grenade Launcher and Lascannon
Sergeant, Power Weapon
Commissar, Power Weapon
Infantry Squad, Grenade Launcher and Lascannon
Sergeant, Power Weapon
Infantry Squad, Lascannon (These 3 Squads form The Blob)
Heavy Weapon Team, 3x Autocannons
Heavy Weapon Team, 3x Missile Launchers
Heavy Weapon Team, 3x Mortars
Fast Attack:
Hellhound, HHF
Valkyrie, Multiple Rocket Pods
Heavy Support:
Demolisher, Sponson Plasma Cannons, Hull Lascannon
Medusa, Enclosed Crew Compartment
TACTICS
For those of you who watch the Youtube battle reports (BR-14), this is the army I played against Mkerr last Thursday. Here’s a rundown of the less obvious thoughts behind the choices.
HQ Design Theory:
-Straken provides a huge bubble of Furious Charge and Counter Attack. His Master of Ordnance encourages people to move towards him and to spread out their lines. Spread lines can be defeated in detail, whereas tight assaults are more dangerous. Straken himself is a frightening Hand-to-hand fighter.
-Lord Commissar provides a bubble of Leadership 10, and can make a unit Stubborn. Any unit he is with can be relied upon to Get Back in the Fight after going to ground as well.
-Ministorium Priest gives rerolls to hit on the charge, increasing my hits by 50% against Weapon Skill 3-6. With Straken or The Blob, he’s a significant force multiplier. And Eviscerators are great for killing vehicles (Strength 7 with Furious Charge, +2d6 Penetration; a Guardsman who glances Landraiders on average rolls).
The Blob Design Theory:
Either people will avoid The Blob and get shot with Lascannons, or they will approach The Blob, and get torn apart by Furious Charge. Either way, The Blob is a solid anchor of killing power.
Heavy Support Theory:
With new Tyranids, S10 AP2 shooting matters. Oddly, this shooting also kills Thunderwolf Cavalry very nicely as well. A plain Demolisher or Medusa could easily be added to this list to make it stronger; simply drop a few things here and there.
Heavy Weapon Teams Theory:
These are 3 MSU that get to shoot things from turn 1. Either they will get waxed or they will hurt the enemy – both are acceptable outcomes. I cluster these in range of the Lord Commissar or out of sight, so they can be Leadership 10 or not taking damage.
Veterans Theory:
Ideally these will hit a lightly defended objective and then be able to fire their Lascannon into the rear and flanks of the enemy. The Powerfist makes them less impotent if someone does get into assault with them.
Overall Theory:
I like to kill everything, and this army is designed to do exactly that, especially against Mechanized and Big Bug Tyranid forces. My shooting is resilient, due to The Blob covering the HW Teams and the Lord Commissar providing Leadership 10. I have sufficient downrange shooting to encourage almost any opponent to close, and enough assault ability to kill them once they do.
My Opponents:
Round 1, I faced Josiah and his Pedro Drop Sternguard, with Thunderfire Cannons and TH/SS Terminator + Librarian. Josiah and I played frequently while he was preparing this army, and I feel it is pretty well tuned to give Guard (Mech and Hybrid) a very hard time. I see Thunderfires getting little love from other quarters, but I find them to be murderous and a good deal harder to kill than they are given credit for, if deployed well. I was going second, which meant I had to either fully Reserve or give up the units I deployed – tanks would get wrecked by Drop Pod Meltas, and Infantry would be mauled by Thunderfires. So it was all Reserves for me. In the end, Josiah failed 7 of 9 Stubborn 9 morale tests, resulting in 4 units running off the table, and I managed to pull out a minor win due to success with the last shots (from the Ratlings) and the last close combat (Straken shredding the Librarian).
Round 2 Had me paired against Jesse and his Necrons. The Mission was Capture and Control, which meant I could expect one of his two Monoliths to be camped on each objective, ensuring that my only chance to win would be Phase Out. Since Jesse had 2 Monoliths and the Deceiver, Phase Out required only 32 Necrons to die, which was doable, even with most of his warriors out of LOS in the far corner of the Spearhead deployment. Straken made it across the board to kill the required number of Warriors on the bottom of turn 6 for the Phase Out. Full points.
Round 3: Brought me the ideal mission and pairing; Annihilation and a MC-heavy Tyranid List. Chris and I have played a few games while we have been learning the new Tyranid Codex, and I knew he wasn’t going to make any terrible mistakes. I won the roll to go first, and managed to kill his Zoanthrope, The Doom, 4 Warriors, a bucket of Termagaunts, and put a couple of wounds on his Flyrant. The theme for the round was well exemplified by my putting two wounds on Old One Eye with a Multilaser. I was hot, Chris was rolling 1s and 2s (mostly 1s) on armor saves, and by the end of my second Shooting Phase, the Tyranid Swarm was essentially dead. We did manage to have a good old fashioned showdown between The Swarmlord and Straken, but with Chris’ rolls being what they were, Straken added another fine trophy to his collection.
Since I was on table 2, table 1 had to end in a near draw for me to win; thankfully, Darkwynn and Kings managed to do so – just like last January.
~Final results for the day were Jwolf 1st, Aventine and his Mechdar 2nd, and Darkwynn in 3rd with Fiendapalooza Daemons. Lets hear your thoughts on the IG list and the implications of the Space Wolves FAQ and Straken.
