My friend John Lay and I drove the 2 hours to Cincinnati Ohio to play in the 4th annual CAG Bash. This year they allowed escalation, stronghold assault, and forgeworld 40k approved units. There ended up being 38 players. Check out this battle report with a few pictures. Not as good as Xaereth's of course but I am working on it....
The CAG Bash was the past weekend at Cincycon. It was a very nice convention with a ton of different events, vendors, and cool people.
The tournament was an 1850 point- 3x 2.5 hour round tournament. A max of 12 points could be earned each round for the winner. The pairings were top scores after each round to get a points winner after 3 rounds. We also used the player placed terrain rules.
My list:
Grey Knights w/Necron Allies
Coteaz
Ordo Malleus Inq in terminator armor with Psycannon, Daemonhammer, and 3 x servo skulls
4 henchmen in psybolt razorback with searchlight
4 henchmen with 3 storm bolter and 1 bolter
4 henchmen with 3 bolters and 1 storm bolter
3 acolytes with plasma guns, 3 servitors with plasma cannons in chimera with heavy flamer
5 strike squad grey knights with 1 psycannon in Rhino with searchlight
Warhound Titan with 1 turbo laser destructer and 1 plasma blast gun
1 Void shield Generator with 3 void shields
Destroyer Lord with mind shackle scarabs, weave, and war scythe
5 warriors in Night Scythe
Annihilation Barge
The list was designed to have 6 small scoring units to try and hold objectives, or hide and get them. I had multiple strength 7 shooting to try and drop any void shields in time for my Titan to do the heavy lifting. I didn't have a titan that had double turbo lasers so I had to play carefully. If I went up against a revenant or another warhound with 4 turbo lasers I would be in trouble unless I got first turn and was able to drop their void shields first.
ROUND 1
Game 1 versus 2 time CAG Bash winner Brian Leugers. He was playing screamer star, the bane of my existence.
Mission:5 objectives with Elite as scoring (Best of the Best) with Vanguard deployment.
Brian's List:
Fateweaver
Belakor
4x Level 3 heralds
9 screamers
1 cultist blob
2 x 10 daemonettes
I won roll for first turn and took it before he could get powered up. As a tactical decision I placed that big hill he is deployed on at the edge of his deployment zone so he couldn't hide as much giving me a tactical advantage when trying to shoot his on coming reserves. Below is his deployment minus the first 5 screamers I killed. Belakor is the winged model close to the screamers and Fateweaver is in the back corner. He spread out max 2" all except 1 spot where I could get three if I got an exact hit with the 2 5" D blasts. The mystic you see is one of my three servo skulls. He kept his cultists and daemonettes in reserve.
This is after my movement and before I got to shoot. I kept the destroyer lord in the night scythe with the warriors, and the 2 henchmen squads in reserves.
The Chimera had the Ordo Inquistor, plasma cannon henchmen, and plasma gun henchmen are in the Chimera. Coteaz started out of the Rhino to cast prescience on the warhound :). Then jumped in the rhino with the strikes. I shot everything at the screamers to attempt to kill some screamers before I put the 2 D blasts and 10" Strength 10 blast. The result of my first turn of shooting was......
Brian lost 3 screamers to small arms fire from the Annhilation barge, Chimera, Razorback, Strike squad and henchmen squad. Then the 10" blast and D weapons killed all but 1 herald. I could have gone after Fateweaver but decided that the screamer star was priority one. He had all the powers he needed to crunch the rest of my army.
His Turn 1 he cast some powers and jumped in the air with Belakor and Fatey. His herald moved forward to cast flickering fire on the chimera but as luck would go I denied on a 6. He was out of range to cast any telepathy powers on the warhound. Puppet master would have been stupid good. Good thing I moved backwards. I actually moved forward and decided to move back my turn 1. Lucky decision as I forgot about Belakor's telepathy shenanigans.
My turn 2 all my reserves came in. I moved the night scythe to shoot at belakor and try to drop him. I moved the henchmen on the right behind cover to try and shoot down the herald, the henchmen behind the chimera to try and get some bolter shots at fateweaver and belakor. If I could kill all three models I would auto win. After my shooting I was able to kill belakor and fateweaver. I landed the strength 10 blast on the herald but rolled a 1 to wound.... So he had a one wound herald left.
He got his cultist blob and two daemonettes in. His helldrake came in and vector strike the razorback destroying the weapon and shaking it. He then shot his Hades Auto cannon. He did two penetrations but didn't wreck the scythe. He ran them to spread them out, and moved the herald towards the center ruin to cast flickering fire on the Rhino with only a hull point taken off and his turn ended.
My turn 3 I moved the night scythe straight towards the cultist, dropping the Destroyer lord and warriors who shot down the herald. I moved the rhino forward 6", disembarked and shot them and coteaz into the daemonettes reducing them to the four you see below. I moved both henchmen units, and the chimera and unit inside to kill the other daemonette units by the bottom right objective as seen above. The annihilation barge moved towards the helldrake and shot it out of the sky with an explosion roll of a 6. The Warhound shot and killed 10 of the 12 cultist but they passed their test.
Below is what he had left plus 2 cultist and Brian called the game.
The result of the game was a max of 12 points. What did the pairing of a warhound titan even with only 1 turbo laser do against in my opinion the toughest 40k list out there? It crushed it when nothing else could in 1 turn of shooting. One turbo laser was too much. How would the list do against an opponent that crushed his first round opponent?
Round 2
I was paired against a list that I immediately saw was going to be a problem. I was paired against Chris who brought a super nasty dark eldar list.
His List: (Approximately)
Succubus
5 Grotesques in Raider with dark lance
9 Venoms
3 x 3 trueborn with blasters
3x5 witches with haywire blasters
3x5 warriors with a blaster
2 ravagers with dark lances
9 reaver jetbikes
He also rolled a 6 on combat drugs to give them all feel no pain. :(
Mission 2 was 5 objectives with fast attack scoring and victory points, Hammer and Anvil deployment.
Chris won the roll to go first and took the advantage. There was night fight which also gave him a great advantage. I knew with his 7 lances, 12 blasters, and 15 haywire grenade toting wyches I was in for a tough fight. Also going first I had to limit what he could do to my units. With 108 venom cannon shots I had to try and hide inside my metal boxes as long as I possibly could. He did immobilize a venom on the forest on the bottom right. :( for him.
I deployed to the back of the short table edge as the picture below shows. I deployed coteaz and the strike squad out of the rhino to be able to cast prescience on the titan. Hiding behind the hill would limit his shooting to NOTHING turn 1. The Annihilation barge is behind the void shield generator. My deployment worked as he didn't shoot at anything but fell into my trap by getting closer to me so the night fight wouldn't be an issue and I could hopefully crumple a lot of his vehicles in my shooting phase.
His turn 1 he moved forward and turbo boosted everything as seen below. He did a great job of spreading out to ensure I could really only get 1 vehicle with the D templates. If you zoom in on the picture he had 2 venom's with wyches on the bottom and most of the blasters towards the top. I very much wanted to ensure the wyches didn't get in close combat with my warhound. I also knew I needed to ensure I kept the blasters away as well. If I didn't have a good turn of shooting I was going to be in major trouble. You can also see where Chris did something really smart by getting all the vehicles on the bottom of the picture within the 12" bubble of the void shield.
When I deployed the titan I knew I was going to be out of the void shield bubble. I did this on purpose in case he decided to try and get a few lucky shots on the titan he wouldn't drop the void shields. Only 1 lance was actually in range. ;)
I am sorry I missed the picture of turn 2 and 3 and after my turn 1 shooting but this is what went down.
I moved the warhound into the 12" bubble, moved the annihilation barge to the bottom of the board next to the void shield, loaded the strike squad and coteaz into the rhino, moved the chimera into the 12" void shield bubble wall, and the rhino backed up to the chimera to block line of sight and access to titan from the oncoming venom's on the top of the board. I shot the chimera, squad inside, and storm bolter into the bikes killing 7 of the 9. They failed they leadership and ran 13" away. I shot the annihilation barge at the bottom venom needing to crack it so I could slow down the wyches. I hit plenty but he passed his 4++. The funny thing is the tesla arced into the bikes and killed two more making it impossible for him to regroup on regular leadership needing double 1's because he was below 25%. The D weapons cracked the ravager on the bottom of the picture. I placed the large 10" blast where it would hit 4 venoms and the unit pinned in a crater. He made 3 of 4 4+ cover saves only knocking out 1 venom. My shooting to try and stop the raider with the Grotesques and Succubus fell horrible short of doing anything. I was not happy with the shooting phase and was very worried.
His turn 2 he jumped out the wyches at the bottom to assault the barge, kept the 2nd wyche venom back to shoot the venom cannon and anything that might fall out of the rhino or chimera (I dodged a bullet here as he had range to charge my warhound but chose not to), moved the blaster venom's closer, disembarked the Grotesques and Succubus to assault the contents of the Chimera. His shooting wrecked my chimera pinning the inquisitor and unit and exploded my rhino. Instead of deploying back the full 3" I deployed closer to him hoping we would make the charge so if I won I would be unpinned. After all the venom shooting and lances and remaining blasters I only lost 1 marine, 1 wound on coteaz, 2 plasma cannon servitors, and a plasma gun acolyte. Chris assaulted the wyches into the barge and rolled 5 1's and 2's to hit netting him 0 hull points. :) He assaulted the grotesques and the succubus into the Inquisitor unit. I challenged and he accepted with his Warlord. He rolled to hit me with 6 attacks and rolled 5 2's and 1 1. The luck had lost him in assault. I then instant killed her with 1 swing of my daemonhammer, won combat and watched them run away.
My turn 2 brought in all my reserves. I moved the inquisitor and his unit past the grotesques and shot and assaulted a venom exploding it with the daemonhammer. The strike squad shot, and assaulted the 4 grotesques with Coteaz instant killing three of them with his force hammer and sweeping the other. They consolidated into the hill as seen below. The warhound shot and destroyed the fleeing bikes and wyches on foot in his backfield and a large blast onto some venom's which he saved with his 5++ while the barge turned on the venom near the void shield generator. The night scythe came on intending to pop the last ravager. The henchmen came on intending to shoot the 5 wyches to death with storm bolters. I had 16 shots and only killed 2. Bad rolling and him passing 5 feel no pain saves due to combat drugs kept them alive. My Scythe did nothing to the raider. Not a good turn of shooting.
The picture below is the beginning of his turn 3. His turn 3 he became more aggressive by moving his 4 wyches on foot into assault with the warhound, the raider to try and lance him all his remaining venom's and blasters including his ravager to shoot at the strike squad and inquisitor squad. He took his 3 remaining wyches and assaulted the barge only doing 2 hull points. He succeeded in destroying the entire strike squad plus coteaz and inquisitor squad. In assault he took out 3 hull points from the warhound and then died horribly from the stop attacks. He bunched up and due to his raider being too close I was able to stomp it as well.
My turn 3 I dropped my destroyer lord in the center piece of terrain with the warriors to be able to claim it for hopefully 3 points. I moved the henchman to kill the last 3 wyches on the bottom, I moved the warhound to shoot his other remaining troop choices, moved the scythe off the board to come back in, moved the annihilation barge to attempt to pop the last venom with 3 true born and blasters in it.
This is the final picture I took on my turn. Chris has 3 true born with blasters on the hill to the top right, that ravager, the wyches, the venom next to my henchmen and the venom immobilized in the trees, and the venom in front of my warhound with 3 more blasters. My psybolt razorback comes in next to the void shield generator. After my shooting he had the 3 trueborn on the hill, 1 trueborn from the exploded venom, the immobilized venom in the woods and the ravager.
His turn 4 he moved his ravager to try take out the destroyer lord. I was in terrain and only lost 1 warrior. He moved and ran the true born on the hill to try and stop the razorback.
My turn 4 destroyed the ravager, the true born, moved my acolytes onto my objective near the void shield generator, the barge killing the last venom, etc.
We had a few minutes for turn 5. His shooting did nothing and I jumped my destroyer lord for line breaker. The result was a 9 point win.
How did this Dark Eldar list do? Very well with the ability to hurt titans with blasters, lances, and haywire grenades, plus the ability to get to me on turn 1. I feel if he would have concentrated on the warhound with the haywire and blasters he could have had a better result. Chris was a great player and pushed me to the limit.
Round 3
I was paired against Kevin Donahue. Kevin had obviously done well to be near 21 points after 2 rounds. I looked at his board and knew he had the list to potentially beat me.
His List:
White Scars with Inquisitorial allies, and Knight detachement
Khan on bike
Inquisitor with servo skulls
6x5 man bike squads with half melta and half grav weapons
3 x thunderfire cannons
3 twin linked krak missile platforms with interceptor and skyfire. (Not sure the name)
4 twin linked krak missile platforms with interceptor and skyfire.
Knight with battle cannon arm
Here is his army on his board.
Unfortunately I only got one picture of his deployment after his 1st turn of movement. (I have to get better like Xaereth)
Kevin won the roll to go first and elected to take it. He put out his 3 servo skulls in the middle of the board and deployed as above with three units of melta bikes. He outflanked Khan and three bike squads. One to the far left and two centered. You can see his missile platforms on the back table edge. His thunderfire cannons are hidden in the three pieces of terrain. I deployed as seen above with the void shield generator in the far left corner with coteaz hiding behind it to cast prescience on the titan.
With him going first and the scout moves he would effectively be able to scout to the middle of the board and hit my void shield generator and or my titan and potentially alpha strike me turn 1. In fact he could with three 5 man bike units and the knight drop the void shields and triple melta my warhound. Not a good thing. Instead he went flat out with the bikes to get close. Good thing I placed my three servo skulls right in front of all three of his bike squads so he couldn't scout move at all.
With night fight I limited his shooting to 1 hull point off the chimera and two void shield from the generator. :)
My turn 1 cast prescience, moved coteaz and the strike squad forward to shoot at the bikes. I landed two hits with the d blasts right on top of the knight and a large blast on top of the 5 bikes. I was sure it was the end of the knight. I rolled double 1's for NO DAMAGE!! I then killed 1 bike with the strength 10 large blast since he had a 3+ cover. The annihilation barge and chimera shot at one squad killing 2 bikes which he passed his leadership. I moved the rhino at the bottom of the page to block the warhound from the middle bike squad. I shot and then assaulted the bikes with Coteaz and his squad consolidating 3" back to get away from the night as much as possible.
His turn two he gets Kahn and his squad and another bike squad. He gets both of the squads on the side with Coteaz and the strike squad. Getting both squads on this side means that I will probably lose my warlord, the void shield generator and half my warlord. His tactical mistake by bringing in both squads next to coteaz which triggers the "I have been expecting you" special ability of coteaz. I shoot at both units with the 5 man strike squad and kill 3 bikes from one unit and 2 from another. Some of them special weapons. He kills all the strike squad except coteaz with 2 wounds and the psycannon. His knight punches the void shield generator exploding it killing 2 bikes. His middle bike squad kills the rhino, he punches through the chimera spilling out the henchmen and due to his thunderfires kills all but the inquisitor and 1 henchman. I again baited him by putting my inquisitor close to his bikes hoping we will assault me. He assaults me and I kill 1 bike due to bad rolling and he passes his leadership test. Overall a decent turn for him except where he loses 5 bikes to Coteaz.
My turn 2 brings in one 4 man acolyte squad, my night scythe, and the razorback. I cast prescience on the titan again, precog on coteaz and move over to assault the 1 bike at the back of my deployment zone. I move the acolytes to shoot storm bolters and bolters into the 5 man bike squad that destroyed the rhino and was too close to my warhound. I also move the annihilation barge and the psybolt razorback to try and kill the whole unit. The warhound moves as far away from the Knight as possible hoping not to roll double 1's again on my turbo lasers. With his 7 twin linked missile things there is no way the night scythe will survive and I need to get my destroyer lord into his lines. I move the night scythe 36" and deploy the warriors and destroyer lord to within 1" of his techmarine on the far left ruin above, and run to ensure I am spread out and his units will die next turn.
He intercepts and does nothing with the 3 rocket unit but the 4 rocket unit takes it out. I shoot everything at the 5 man bike squad and kill all but 1 bike. Moment of truth. I get two hits with the d blasts and place the large template so that it hits all three bikes left with kahn and the knight.
I roll the first die and get a 1!!!! :''(
The second die rolls d3+1. At this point you can see the elation on his face and I am sure the pure dread on mine. If I don't get lucky here he is going to get to assault my warhound and probably kill it . I roll a 6 and get 4 hull points. :) I then roll the strength 10 blast killing another bike and getting a penetration on the knight. He rolls his 4++ and rolls a 3. I roll the dice and get a 4. With AP1 is goes to a 6 and I get to roll 1d3. The result is a 5 netting me 7 hull points and a large explosion that kills another bike. That was so close. In close combat the inquisitor and 1 henchman kill another bike and he fails his leadership and falls back 13". Coteaz kills the single bike unit. Kevin humbly concedes at this point. He has left 1 single bike, 2 bikes running, Kahn and 1 bike, a 5 man bike still in reserve plus the three thunderfire cannons and missile pods. I understand the thought. The next turn is going to be brutal for him. If I hadn't had the servo skulls to block his scout I feel I would have lost the game. Thanks xenos inquisitor. 12 point win.
I ended up winning best general and winning this cool axe, plus a knight myself , and a great gift certificate. I received a total score of 33 out of 36 points. I only beat out the 2nd place player by 2 points which brought a revenant titan, a wraithknight, 1 void shield generator, eldar jetbikes, coteaz and henchmen in a Valkyrie, etc. His name is Edge and he is a great player. I feel if we would have been matched to play it would have been a tough battle either way. Though he probably had the advantage depending on the mission with a revenant that moves 36" shoots and assaults if needed.
In conclusion, do Lords of War have a place among regular armies in a tournament setting?
Absolutely not!
They help balance against things like screamer star, jetseer, ovesa star, but they eliminate all normal armies with a few rolls of the dice. Surprisingly the dark eldar list was amazingly effective against my list and was really close until I was able to break the transports. I agree if people are agreeing to play with LOW then that is one thing but walking up to a table and trying to kill a revenant or a warhound that just eliminates your best units is not cool. All three of my opponents were VERY good level players. I felt bad for using the warhound against them. Would I rather play my current tournament list against those guys? Absolutely. But I understand why a lot of players like the giant LOW. If we allow them we need to make more concessions for the non LOW players. I made a suggestion to Sean that there should be at least 3-6" tall pieces of large line of sight blocking terrain for this type of event and the non LOW player gets to start placing terrain first to allow them 2 pieces to hide models. This is relatively easy to do and will allow for "some chance" to not instantly lose models. The problem as I see it is if you build an army to fight LOW then you have a chance. But then you are not prepared to fight against normal 6th edition armies most of the time.
Thanks CAG for a great event. We will come again next year to bang heads with you. Until then keep up the good work!
Your thoughts on Lords of War, D weapons in shooting in tournaments?
Also I will work on taking more pictures next time.
Thanks CAG for a great event. We will come again next year to bang heads with you. Until then keep up the good work!
Your thoughts on Lords of War, D weapons in shooting in tournaments?
Also I will work on taking more pictures next time.
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