Goatboy’s 40k Victory & Defeat: 5 Games at the Dallas Open GT Report
Goatboy here with a Tournament report/review. I played the Dallas Open GT a few weeks ago and wanted to do a quick write up of my games.
The event was an ITC event with ITC rules for the most part. We had some tweaks like locking in all our psychic powers/relics/warlord traits on our lists (not the ones we get from Stratagems spent before the game etc) and some terrain changes. Beyond that it was a pretty standard ITC set of missions. This meant I was pretty familiar with the missions themselves and knew what Secondaries most of my opponents should take from me – as well as what I could probably get most games (Recon I did very well with).
I talked about the list before – but here it is again. This was the first time playing it as I had just finished painted it the week before. I don’t like to put unpainted models on the table so I just went with what my gut said should be good. I ended up going 3-2 with one loss to the overall winner and the other to another consistent winner. Both Dark Eldar… Vect is no bueno for me. Anyway the list.
The Goat-trinity
Cadian Battalion
Company Commander – Warlord – Grand Strategist – Relic – Kurov’s Cheaty Relic
Company Commander
Infantry Platoon – 10 Guys
Infantry Platoon – 10 Guys
Infantry Platoon – 10 Guys
Blood Angel Supreme Command
Captain, Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield
Captain, Jump Pack, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield
Mephiston – Wings of Sangy, Unleash Rage, Quickening
Adeptus Custodes
Shield Captain on Dawn Eagle Bike
Shield Captain on Dawn Eagle Bike
Bikers X 4
Bikers X 4
Bikers X 4
Overall I like the list. I really needed some long range firepower to help take out Ravagers instead of utilizing dumb stratagem tricks. I got a build thought using Knights for some fun and profit that could work. It really gets hard to have to rely on those AM guys to generate you command points so I keep thinking of moving towards armies that don’t need them as much. But so many Imperial armies are hungry for them. But enough of that – a quick report because going into too much detail gets boring.
Quick event review/thoughts – it was very well run. The Terrain – while not amazing to look at was extremely functional. Everything was painted and each table had the exact same load out. This meant that any advantage you would gain from picking the best side was gone. I am also very happy it was ITC as the missions were known before hand and fairly easy to understand. I know a lot of people want to home brew a mission set – but right now we have two fairly solid ones to use – Nova and ITC – so sticking to those two would be for the best. The only way I would like missions better would be to just make things easier and do 1-2 things during each game – but we are not at that point yet for an event.
Round 1 – vs IG
Elliot playing an IG list with some Assassins. He had a Stormlord, some casters, and again a ton of Assassins. The IG themselves were Armageddon and the big tank was Vostroyan. The deployment was the short side edges as your deployment zone and we had 4 Objectives to get. I picked Titan Slayer, Head Hunter, and I think Recon if I remember correctly. I lost the score sheet. I jumped a Death company yolo lord up – drop another from the sky and tried to double team the Stormlord. I ended up only getting one in, knocking some wounds off of it. Mephiston jumped in and killed some other guys and I basically got my Custodes up to threaten next turn. The Turning point of this was when Mephiston sat in cover, took the Stormlords shooting, survived a bunch of Guardsmen attacking and some Culexsus’s and stayed alive. My Second Yolo lord that didn’t get to charge in did end up getting involved and helped kill some characters. The wave of Golden boys murdered most things they touched and killed the Stormlord on the Charge. Reroll to wound was pretty helpful to do a ton of damage. I ended up winning 34-13.
Round 2 – vs IG
Marc Parker the old man himself. Marc is a good buddy from Florida and someone you probably know if you play around the circuit. He was playing an AM army with some BA yolo lord action. He had some AM command tanks, some other tanks, and the Shadowsword. It was the pointed dawn of war set up with some objectives thrown around. If I remember right I took Titan slayer, Head Hunter, and Big Game Hunter as he had some big tanks I had to kill. I ended up going first and basically sealed the game with some Yolo lord action taking out one Tank Command and locking in the other two plus a Colossus. From there I was able to Grind things down even though I lost a lot of Golden Boys to the big tank. Reroll to wound helped me kill the big guy and some pretty hot saving throws. I took this game 37-11.
Round 3 – vs Dark Eldar and Harlies.
This was the guy who won the whole thing so it wasn’t too bad. He had some of those Harlie Bikers will be seeing more of, the normal 3 Ravagers plus Archon with the Mask to reroll wounds, lots of Wyches in Venoms, and some Characters. It was MSU to the max and I should have taken Death by a Thousand Cuts. I think I did Recon (mistake), Head Hunter, and Old Skool. It was just a very hard game as I tried to pull any advantage I could but the only time I got some luck thrown my way (making a crazy charge) the guy would miss and I couldn’t take out one Ravager. Good game and well played by Nick – who is another local from San Antonio that I have never played. I think if some things had gone my way and I picked a better Secondary I might have gotten a Tie. I lost 26-24 on this one so it was pretty close.
Round 4 – vs Cult-Tyranids-IG
He had some Casting, some Genestealers, and the Mortars to bring the pain. He had two units of Hive Guard that he misdeployed by leaving me a tiny space I could get to with one Yolo lord. The mission was Dawn of War deployment with I think 4 Objectives. I jumped the Yolo lord up, he landed and got a 13 inch charge (he was within 12 inches of the Hive Guard. He had the Angels Grace Jump Pack so no overwatch). I came in targeting everyone in my charge range (both Hive Guard units, all the guys, etc) and got to the Hive Guard. I killed the first batch, Consolidated to get to the second batch, attacked again, and left one Hive Guard. I took the wind out of his sails with that charge and it was pretty much over at that point. My guy got blasted by spells and I came up with my golden guys to murder things. He charged 20 genestealers and a Prime into a unit of 4 bikers and I survived with 2 left. I moved out, bolter it out and just murdered things with sacred bolter fire. Fun thing is that I went down to 0 Command points but went back up to 12 by the end of the game. Cliff was at 15. It was nuts. I won 32-17.
Round 5 – vs Dark Eldar/Eldar
Matt Alle had the lovely combo of Shining Spears, Doom, Ravagers, and flyers. I have talked a bit about this game but if Vect didn’t stop my second attack I might have had a better chance. Doom being cast on a 11 is hard thing to stop and my guys got rerolled to death by Ravagers, Disintegrators, Shining Spears, and the game saying Goatboy wasn’t supposed to win. Good game overall just a rough end for me as the other Custodes dodged this match up to take best Golden Boy player. I just felt like I couldn’t really capitalize on a mistake by my opponent as my options to do the most damage was stopped by one Stratagem. I did get up to 14 command points as I kept getting them whenever Matt did anything. He at least gave me that. I lost this game 30-21 so not too bad.
Overall I had a good time on my Father’s Day warhammer 40k tournament. It was a lot of fun and I will hopefully make it again next year. Bruce and crew put on a pretty spectacular first year event. I am guessing it won’t be at the same place next year – but I wouldn’t mind it being in a cheaper venue next time. Hopefully will get some more 40k fun coming soon.
Thanks again and even though I played good guys this last time …they were secretly bad inside.
~How would you improve my list?
