Local Escalation League

[9x19 Parabellum]

So my FLGS started an escalation league and I decided to use the opportunity to begin my RG Primaris force.

 

The League will be played out over 6 weeks total, 3 phases each lasting 2 weeks, during which you must play 3 games against 3 different players.

 

Phase 1: 500 pts. Modified Patrol Detachment: 1 HQ, 1-2 Troops, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast, 0-1 Heavy, 0 Flyers, 0 Lords of War, 0 Fortifcations, 1 DedTrans per other unit.

 

Phase 2: 750 pts. Modified Patrol Detachment: 1 HQ, 1-2 Troops, 0-1 Elite, 0-1 Fast, 0-1 Heavy, 0 Flyers, 0 Lords of War, 0 Fortifcations, 1 DedTrans per other unit.

 

Phase 3: 1,000 pts. Modified Battalion Detachment: 2 HQ, 2-6 Troops, 0-3 Elite, 0-3 Fast, 0-3 Heavy, 0-2 Flyers, 0 LoW, 0 Fortifications, 1 DedTrans per other unit.

 

All games played using a randomized Eternal War mission.

 

PHASE 1.

So. My 3 games in phase 1 were as follows:

 

Game 1 vs. Orks. - James S.

Jump Captain (RG Relic, Silent Stalker), chainsword

5 Intercessors

3 Full Dakka Aggressors

5 Hellblasters

 

Ork player got Initiative, combined 30 boyz into 10 boyz, 'da jump'ed into my main area, charged, pretty much game over.  Crushing victory to Orks (0 league pts.)

 

Game 2 vs. Thousand Sons. - Josh P.

Taking a queue from the previous loss, I decided I needed a better screen, so I downgraded jump captain to jump lt. and added 5 naked scouts.

 

Opponent had:

Ahriman, 2x5 Rubric Marines and 1 Hellbrute.

 

Mission was "Big Guns never tire", I got initiative. Aggressors SftS into Hellbrute, shooting and charging (dead), Hellblasters and Intercessors killed 4 rubrics from 1 unit. He was unable to bounce back and I tabled him turn 4. Crushing victory to RG. (5 leauge points).

 

Game 3 vs. Necrons (Nihilak) - DJ.

I used exact same list as game 2.

1 Cryptek (5++ invuln save buff, Veil of Darkness, Immortal Pride), 1x20 warriors, 1x4 tomb blades with 2 Gauss Blasters

 

Mission was Secure and Control.  Kited warriors, denying his chapter tactic and picking him off until he got irritated and sent his tomb blades in, which I then pounded.  On 4th turn he finally Veiled of Darkness up the board, but failed to do anything really useful. I then proceeded to table him and scored Crushing Victory (5 league pts)

 

PHASE 2.

So, phase 2 i more or less continued as an extension of my 500 pt. list.  My "default" list (which, we are allowed to change out at any time, btw):

Primaris Lt. (power sword, storm of fire, armor indomitus)

5 scouts

5 intercessors (power sword)

1 red dred (2x storm bolters, 1 icarus, 1 ogc, 1 mp incin)

10 hellblasters

 

The idea is to use the Dread for "wisdom of ancients" so I can safely overcharge hellblasters and allow the lt to reroll wound rolls.

 

Game 1 vs. Imperial Guard (Tallarn) - Josh Z.

1 Captain, 1 Lt, 2x9 guardsmen, 2 scout sentinels with autocannons, 2 chimera (1 with tri las and 1 with heavy bolters), 2 leman russ (1 with gatling cannon + heavy bolters, 1 with battle cannon + heavy bolters)

 

Mission was "Big Guns Never Tire" again.

 

I lost initiative and got stuck with bad board positioning but managed to pull out a Crushing Victory nonetheless (5 league points) My best game so far in the league play.

 

 

So then, all that said, I have a couple games coming up, and I'd like to play 2 of the top rated guys.  You can find standings here, though it's not up to date:

 

https://www.zombie-planet.com/40k-team-standings

 

I want to play Matt with Grey Knights and probably need to take down Shawn's Necrons.

 

Matt had 2 Strike Squads with heavy guns, and was using his psykers to shoot through walls with astral aim but be immune to return fire. I never saw what else he had.

 

Shawn will probably play 2x20 warriors, ghost ark and cryptek for max reanimation, along with immortal pride, veil of darkness and I believe mephit dynasty. I'm not too worried about him.

 

So I'm interested in help against Grey Knights, as I haven't really played against them much in 8th edition.

 

[Dracos]

Expensive Marines with smite spam I believe. A Cullexus might be in order.

[NiceGuyAdi]

If Matt’s relying on putting walls between his strike squads and targets, deep striking/SFtS plasma weapons in behind them could change his game plan very quickly.

[Dracos]

If Matt’s relying on putting walls between his strike squads and targets, deep striking/SFtS plasma weapons in behind them could change his game plan very quickly.

I’m not saying anyone should fear RG Hellblasters and Aggressors SftS ... no, no that’s exactly what I’m saying ;)

 

Agreed totally with ANG. Question is he knows what you do also, so what do you do to over come his counter strategy?

 

 

You guys using mono-list or lame err I mean competitive natured ;)) Soup options? Actually I have no issue with Marines and Guard working in tandem. It’s fluffy and effective. That said I’d bubble wrap my Knights ... Would he?

[9x19 Parabellum]

Expensive Marines with smite spam I believe. A Cullexus might be in order.

 

Not going to happen.  A max of one patrol detachment, and all must be from same faction. Besides that, I don't soup, even if it were allowed.

[9x19 Parabellum]

 

If Matt’s relying on putting walls between his strike squads and targets, deep striking/SFtS plasma weapons in behind them could change his game plan very quickly.

I’m not saying anyone should fear RG Hellblasters and Aggressors SftS ... no, no that’s exactly what I’m saying

 

Agreed totally with ANG. Question is he knows what you do also, so what do you do to over come his counter strategy?

 

 

You guys using mono-list or lame err I mean competitive natured ) Soup options? Actually I have no issue with Marines and Guard working in tandem. It’s fluffy and effective. That said I’d bubble wrap my Knights ... Would he?

 

 

No souping.  Everything has to fit into 1 modified patrol detachment (see specs in OP), and all part of single faction.  So I don't really think he'll be able to bubble anything.  But can't GK put any/everything into reserves (teleportarium).

 

We are allowed to change lists in between battles. I wish it were otherwise (one list for the whole phase, and you have to keep that same basic list into the next bracket), but the store owner wants to sell models (and I can't blame him :-) )

[Dumah]

Well done sir! Out of curiosity, what would you do differently were you to come up against a similar horde list to the first game (besides the inclusion of scouts)?

[9x19 Parabellum]

Well done sir! Out of curiosity, what would you do differently were you to come up against a similar horde list to the first game (besides the inclusion of scouts)?

 

I did a couple things wrong, in addition to not taking more of a "take-all-comers" list.

 

1.  Assuming his Ork mob was going to jump, I should have put all my available models on the 2nd floors of ruins, limiting the charge space, and thus the number of models he could effectively bring in to fight with.

 

2. I should have worried less abouit the big gun Mek's shooting and more about the ork boyz. I didn't properly identify the number one threat and thus I failed to base all my decision making around what I should have made it around.

 

3.  In the last couple rounds, after I had lost everything but my jump captain, I tilted and made some dumb scoring decisions. I could have limited the score to a normal victory for him instead of a crushing one.  He would have gotten first blood, linebreaker and the inferior objective, but I would have gotten slay the warlord and claimed at least one objective.  I don't think he would have out-pointed me by 2:1 (or more).

[ShinyRhino]

The Ork player must have also gotten incredibly lucky to have made the 9" multi charge into multiple units at once after the jump.

[9x19 Parabellum]

He didn't. I made other foolish errors.

 

For example...my Aggressors were not the target of his "jump", and he didn't declare a charge against them. But I didn't want to move them on my turn because I wanted to double-tap him.

 

The double-tap did incredibly poorly for damage. And because I didn't move them, they would have been within his charge range. So I declared a charge (in for a penny in for a pound) thinking it would at least be better than my aggressors receiving a charge (not fully thinking/realizing that bringing your models TO Orks is always a bad idea).  If I hadn't charged, at LEAST he would have had to decide between charging the helblasters OR the aggressors.  Like in shooting, my melee attacks failed to do enough damage, and I didn't think through the pile in move of his 2 or 3 power klaws, which then proceeded to tear my aggressors to shreds.

 

So I fed him my aggressors and he then proceeded to eat my hellblasters.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Also, so tonight's update:

 

Game 5 vs. Andy's Thousand Sons.

List: Terminator Sorceror, 10 Rubrics with Soulreaper cannon, 5 Termies with Soulreaper, Mutalith

My List: same as my Game 4 list vs. Josh's Imperial Guard

Mission: Secure and Control

Initiative: Thousand Sons

Deployment: Dawn of War

 

BATREP:

Some things moved and pretty much his whole army died to massed overcharged, Wisdomed of the Ancients, Lt. Buff plasma fire. (on one particular turn I hit with all 19 rapid fire, overcharged hellblaster shots (1 guy was not in rapid fire range) and wounded with 17 of those 19.  That was a sad day for termies :-(

 

Crushing Victory to RG.

This was a very inexperienced player who has not really gotten many games under his belt, so this can hardly be celebrated as a win.

[duz_]

Also, so tonight's update:

 

Game 5 vs. Andy's Thousand Sons.

List: Terminator Sorceror, 10 Rubrics with Soulreaper cannon, 5 Termies with Soulreaper, Mutalith

My List: same as my Game 4 list vs. Josh's Imperial Guard

Mission: Secure and Control

Initiative: Thousand Sons

Deployment: Dawn of War

 

BATREP:

Some things moved and pretty much his whole army died to massed overcharged, Wisdomed of the Ancients, Lt. Buff plasma fire. (on one particular turn I hit with all 19 rapid fire, overcharged hellblaster shots (1 guy was not in rapid fire range) and wounded with 17 of those 19.  That was a sad day for termies :-(

 

Crushing Victory to RG.

This was a very inexperienced player who has not really gotten many games under his belt, so this can hardly be celebrated as a win.

 

 

Wait you just pwn'd a n00b because you fed some orks an Aggressor squad 

 

Para... we expected more from you...

 

 

Personally, I dislike it when games swing that dramatically in either direction (ie. for or against me) its never fun when victory is so overwhelming that no one really enjoys the game because its like playing Doom on easy with IDKFA IDDQD  ;) 

 

Hopefully next match gives a more back and forth game! :tu:

 

BTW WHERE ARE THE PICS?!?!? 

[9x19 Parabellum]

Eh?

 

My Ork game had nothing to do with last night's game.  They are/were 3 weeks apart.

 

I take escalation league games when and where I can, since we have to get in 3 per phase and being married and gainfully employed with real world responsibilities, I can't just hang out at the FLGS all weekend and wait around for the exact guy I want to play to show up.  I've been trying to schedule a game with the top guy (Shawn's Necrons) for like 2 weeks, but I think he's ducking me.

 

I agree blowout games are not very memorable...but it's a tournament (or quasi-tournament setting) so I bring my A-Game regardless of who the opposing player is.

[Race Bannon]

Reads like Shawn fears the Raven Guard :yes:  Yes, that's the ticket.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Reads like Shawn fears the Raven Guard   Yes, that's the ticket.

 

He won't admit it but I think it's true. 

 

Also he's got a mental block about facing me because of all the time I shellacked his ass in Star Wars: Armada :)

[Race Bannon]

I'd avoid you too   Persistent shellacking can get into the soul.

 

[9x19 Parabellum]

So I just finished the escalation league with a 6-3 record.

 

Wins were:

2 against 2 different Imperial Guard players

2 against 2 different thousand sons players

1 vs. Necrons

1 vs. Death Guard

 

Losses were:

1 against Shawn's Necrons

1 against Matt's Grey Knights

1 against James Orks

 

The GK game was a particular upset.  His army was 2 units of 10 strike squad, Draigo, Voldus and Crowe. He put Draigo, Voldus and one 10 man Stirke squad in teleportarium. He deployed 2x5 combat squadded Strike squad and Crowe.

 

I won initiative, with Hellblasters, Pr Captain and Aggressors in SftS.  Hellblasters shot 5 man strike down, but the other 5 man strike squad and Castellan Crowe was behind LOS cover and I couldn't reach them. So I moved 5" and charged with them instead (along with my captain) I killed Crowe and 4 of 5 strike squad, only failing the last one becaues I rolled THREE 1's on my to wound rolls with Aggressors.  So, what should have been a T1 tabling then resulted in Draigo and Voldus going around killing my entire army and GK pulling a Crushing Victory out of their ass.

 

Vs. the Necron player, I managed to get his 20 man Warrior unit down to ONE guy on two different turns.  That was some bullcrap too.

[duz_]

Nice work Para! :tu:

Any pics? ;)

Yeh nothing more infuriating then Necrons re-gening when you knock them down below half strength!

That GK game sounds like it would be interesting to watch

 

What was your final list? Or did it stay the same the whole time?
Any feed back for your fellow Shadow Captains? I went to an RTT on the weekend and results weren't great for me :(

[Race Bannon]

No offense to anyone but Voldus, Draigo and Crowe = beardy.  But that's just a very humble opinion.

[9x19 Parabellum]

No offense to anyone but Voldus, Draigo and Crowe = beardy.  But that's just a very humble opinion.

 

It's fne. I expected hard lists at the upper echelon. What is driving me nuts is popping in to the GK subforum to see what kind of strategies people use against GK only to see them crying hard about how much their codex supposedly sucks.  That doesn't reflect my local meta in the least, given the GK player went undefeated and even spanked 2 people at the 750 pt. bracket with only 500 pts because he forgot to bring all his models one night.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Nice work Para!

 

Any pics?

 

Yeh nothing more infuriating then Necrons re-gening when you knock them down below half strength!

That GK game sounds like it would be interesting to watch

 

What was your final list? Or did it stay the same the whole time?

Any feed back for your fellow Shadow Captains? I went to an RTT on the weekend and results weren't great for me

 

Final list for the 2 games vs. GK and Necrons (who I was really hoping to beat):

 

Shrike

Jump Lt

5 Scouts

5 Scouts

5 Tacs

2 Company Vets

6 Aggressors

10 Hellblasters

 

That gave me 4 units for Tactical Reservers (we did not use the beta Reserves rule from the big faq because the initial League announcement was prior to that).  2 were jump and 2 were SftS. It put me at a disadvantage for first turn but I always try to plan for 2nd turn and If I get 1st turn great.  All missions were random Eternal War missions.

 

The last game, after I lost against the 2 top guys and was out of the running I just decided to goof around and brought:

Primaris Lt.

Techmarine

5 Scouts

5 Intercessors

5 Aggressors

Deredeo Dreadnought (anvillus autocannons, heavy bolter, missiles)

Rpeulsor Tank (HOGC, OGC, TwHB, 3xFSL, 2xKSL, AL)

 

I spammed Wisdom of Ancients with Dread to make up for lack of Captain, and Techmarine spammed heals to the tank and dread.  I actually did very well with that list!

 

Feedback:  Would depend on what your overall meta and army size looks like. I used Dreads at 750 and 1k pts. to great affect spamming WotA.  the other thing is that while SftS is a GREAT stratagem, it's defensive use is ENTIRELY different from it's offensive use (ie, 2nd player vs. 1st player).  You must learn to leverage it both ways since you just cannot ever count on going 1st. 

[Race Bannon]

Yeah, the GK forum is has ... interesting perspectives.

[Shadow Captain Vyper]

Grey Knights are a weak book, you just happen to be playing an army they do very well against.

 

Grey Knights get slaughtered (in general) by the following:

 

- Long range gunline lists

- Lists with large chunks of ablative wounds

- High mobility lists

- A combination of the above with a handful of psykers 

 

That means they in general really struggle against: Eldar (all 4 flavors), Tyranids, Chaos, and Guard (these happen to makeup the bulk of most top-performing tables)

 

I have played quite a few matches against Grey Knights, and it can be a very painful matchup. It usually comes down to me outscoring him in VPs while trying to hide/kite/evade being tabled.

 

The only real counter is Intercessors with a Librarian nearby casting the Psychic Fortress power on them, giving you a block of ablative wounds with a 4+ vs Smite.

 

Alternatively, more scouts to screen the psychic alpha/beta that hits you.

 

Screening is the name of the game - Side note: I feel like the smaller game size benefits the GK player a good amount, his guys don't really diminish at lower levels, however you have less tools to deal with them, and less bodies to throw out against the mortal wound spam.

[9x19 Parabellum]

Grey Knights are a weak book, you just happen to be playing an army they do very well against.

 

Grey Knights get slaughtered (in general) by the following:

 

- Long range gunline lists

- Lists with large chunks of ablative wounds

- High mobility lists

- A combination of the above with a handful of psykers 

 

That means they in general really struggle against: Eldar (all 4 flavors), Tyranids, Chaos, and Guard (these happen to makeup the bulk of most top-performing tables)

 

I have played quite a few matches against Grey Knights, and it can be a very painful matchup. It usually comes down to me outscoring him in VPs while trying to hide/kite/evade being tabled.

 

The only real counter is Intercessors with a Librarian nearby casting the Psychic Fortress power on them, giving you a block of ablative wounds with a 4+ vs Smite.

 

Alternatively, more scouts to screen the psychic alpha/beta that hits you.

 

Screening is the name of the game - Side note: I feel like the smaller game size benefits the GK player a good amount, his guys don't really diminish at lower levels, however you have less tools to deal with them, and less bodies to throw out against the mortal wound spam.

 

1. Long Range Gunline:  Then the GK player is not properly leveraging Astral Aim, Gate and their OMG EVERYBODY teleports strengths.

2. Lots of Ablative Wounds: Agreed, but everyone struggles with this. GK are not alone here.

3. High Mobility Lists. To an extent, yes.

4. My experience is that it does little good to try and out-psyk psyker armies.

 

And the 4 armies you named (Eldar, Nids, Guard, Chaos Soup) are the bane of everybody.  I don't buy into the (anti) hype that GK suck. It doesn't match my experience or my theory crafting when I look at my GK codex.  I just think those other 4 armies are very good right now.

[Race Bannon]

I humor myself thinking about anti-psyker ideas using Space Marines against Eldar.  It's like a proctology exam: you can't stop it once it's started without crying, whining, or walking away.