5 replies to this topic

[sneakybamsen]

I've signed up for a singles tournament in February. I am rather torn with regards to what to bring. I know I want to field my Castigator, since some people at the club I normally play in don't like FW, and for once, this tournament allows FW (currently most tournaments I see don't), so I want it on the table. That is a limitation on options as it is rather expensive in points, and to make the most of it's 2d6 advance while paying 120 pts for the heavy 14 avenger gatling, it kind of needs to be Raven. I am thinking Full Tilt, with Landstrider if need be, for turn 1 charges.

That leaves 1500 points. I have decided I don't want a Castellan, as Chapter Approved will most likely make it too expensive, and I like going a different route.

Filling out those points with something else has been a challenge, as there is not enough for what I want. That leads to the next part.

 

There is a price for best placed single trait list, ie. for Imperial Knights the entire army has to be the same household. If I want to try and achieve that is not certain yet. Depends what we can come up with. If going for it, it puts rather big restraints on the combinations available. But bringing the Castigator would make it an all Raven list, if things in my perspective are to make sense. Please do enlighten me if I am wrong, though

When going with that, but not wanting a Castellan, I'm tempted by a Crusader, a Warden, two Warglaives and a Helverin. With some meltaguns and carapace weapons, we are at just under 2000. Limited to 9CP however, which I am not too happy about.

 

That looks like this:

Spoiler

Super Heavy Detachment - House Raven (+6CP) - 1998 pts

Cerastus Knight-Castigator with Castigator Bolt Cannon, Tempest Warblade, Armour of the Sainted Iron and Blessed by the Sacristans (500pts)

Knight Crusader with Rapidfire Battlecannon, 2 Heavy Stubbers, Heavy Flamer, Ironstorm Missile Pod, Endless Fury and Ion Bulwark (501 pts)

Knight Warden with Avenger Gatling Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Reaper Chainsword and Stormspear Rocket Pod (469 pts)

2 Armiger Warglaives with Meltagun, Reaper Chain-cleaver and Thermal Spear (354 pts)

Armiger Helverin with 2xArmiger Autocannon and Heavy Stubber (174 pts)

 

If facing a knight list with a Castellan, I will be putting Landstrider on the Castigator to make an average 32" charge bomb with Full Tilt.

 

If not going single faction+household, I have considered DA allies with scouts and librarians in a battalion. Not because it's the best CP battery, but it's what I have and it can do some mortal wounds and will help with a couple of denies. Throw in 2 questoris knights alongside the Castigator, and you might even make room for a Dark Talon for putting pressure on your opponent in the DA detachment. 14 CP, so more capable of supporting the knights present.

 

Could be something like this:

Spoiler

Super Heavy Detachment - House Raven (+6CP) - 1384 pts

Cerastus Knight-Castigator with Castigator Bolt Cannon, Tempest Warblade, Armour of the Sainted Iron and Blessed by the Sacristans (500pts)

Knight Crusader with Thermal Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Heavy Flamer, Ironstorm Missile Pod, Endless Fury and Ion Bulwark (473 pts)

Knight Warden with Avenger Gatling Cannon, Heavy Flamer, Heavy Stubber and Reaper Chainsword (411 pts)

 

Battalion - Dark Angels (+5CP) - 616 pts

Ezekiel (135 pts)

Librarian with Force Sword (96 pts)

2 scout squads with Bolters and a Heavy Bolter (130 pts)

scout squad with Bolters and Chainsword + Boltpistol on sergeant (55 pts)

Dark Talon with two Hurricane Bolters and Rift Cannon (200 pts)

 

Of course the two questoris variants are not fixed, but I really like gatling cannons

Also I have conjured a take on this list where the Dark Talon is replaced by a third librarian (in TDA) to enable the DA casting stratagem, and you get points for a few upgrades on the knights.

 

A third option is bringing my ETC qualifiers list, which I enjoyed playing, but I kind of don't expect this to be as competitive, so I figured I might take things down a notch. Here it is though:

Spoiler

== Super-Heavy Detachment == Imperial Knights, <Raven>  == 71 PLs [1279 pts] 6 CP   
LoW1: Knight Crusader (285), Avenger Gatling Cannon with Heavy Flamer (92), Thermal Cannon (76), Heavy Stubber (4), WARLORD: Ion Bulwark, Endless Fury, <Raven> - [25pls] [457pts]
LoW2: Knight Warden (285), Avenger Gatling Cannon with Heavy Flamer (92), Reaper Chainsword (30), Heavy Stubber (4), Exalted Court: Landstrider, <Raven> - [23pls] [411pts]
LoW3: Knight Warden (285), Avenger Gatling Cannon with Heavy Flamer (92), Reaper Chainsword (30), Heavy Stubber (4), <Raven> - [23pls] [411pts]
   
== Super-Heavy Detachment == Imperial Knights, <Krast>  == 38 PLs [721 pts] 3 CP   
LoW4: Knight Gallant (285), Thunderstrike Guntlet (35), Reaper Chainsword (30), Meltagun (17), Heirlooms of the noble Houses: The Paragon Gauntlet, <Krast> - [20pls] [367pts]
LoW5: Armiger Warglaive (160), Thermal Spear (0), Reaper Chain-cleaver (0), Meltagun (17), <Krast> - [9pls] [177pts]
LoW6: Armiger Warglaive (160), Thermal Spear (0), Reaper Chain-cleaver (0), Meltagun (17), <Krast> - [9pls] [177pts]

 

I will really appreciate any feedback on what to do. Should I go for the throat and aim to be as competitive as I can list-wise, or should I dial back and try to snatch that unexpected best mono-faction award?

 

Thanks for reading this wall of nonsense.

 

Regards

Sneaky

[sneakybamsen]

I have thought out more options, which I think I have come to like more. These are both aiming at playing mono household and are affected by limited hobby time due to my second kid being born a week ago.

 

First one is Krast and rather straight forward (2 super heavy detachments for 12 CP):

2 Gallants with heavy stubbers, one with Landstrider and Armour of the Sainted Iron - 704 pts

2 warglaives with heavy stubbers - 324 pts

Crusader with RFBC, Ironstorm missile pod, heavy stubber - 494 pts (giving this one First Knight and Headsmans Mark if facing super heavies or massed vehicles/monsters)

Crusader with Thermal Cannon, Ironstorm missile pod, heavy stubber, Ion Bulwark and Endless Fury (Warlord) - 468 pts

 

Second one is a bit more gimmicky House Raven list but not without punch (Single Super Heavy Detachment for 9 CP):

Cerastus Knight-Castigator with Armour of the Sainted Iron and Landstrider (Warlord) - 430pts

Crusader with RFBC, Ironstorm missile pod, heavy stubber and Endless Fury - 494 pts

Crusader with Thermal Cannon, Ironstorm missile pod and meltagun - 480 pts

Valiant with two twin siegebreaker cannons, two shieldbreaker missiles and Ion Bulwark - 594 pts

 

Both lists require a model to be painted and a few weapons, but nothing that isn't doable come February.

 

Let me know what you think

[sneakybamsen]

My Castigator needs to see tabletime, so I have decided on the below for the 28-player singles tournament. Going mono-faction for the challenge of it and a slight chance at taking home a price (best mono-faction).

 

Krast super heavy detachment (+6 CP)

Cerastus Knight-Castigator with Castigator Bolt-cannon, Tempest Blade, Armour of the Sainted Iron and Landstrider (Warlord) - 430pts

Crusader with RFBC, Ironstorm missile pod, Heavy Stubber, Endless Fury and First Knight - 494 pts

Errant with Heavy Stubber, Thermal Cannon and Thunderstrike Gauntlet - 398 pts

 

Krast super heavy detachment (+3 CP)

Gallant with Heavy Stubber, Thunderstrike Gauntlet and Reaper Chainsword - 352 pts

Warglaive with Heavy Stubber, Thermal Spear and Reaper Chain-cleaver - 162 pts

Warglaive with Heavy Stubber, Thermal Spear and Reaper Chain-cleaver - 162 pts

 

Total sits at 1998 points. Depending on opponent, Landstrider might be swapped for another trait or be moved to the Gallant. If I decide to do that, I might try Blessed by the Sacristans on the Castigator to see if it can squeeze out some mortal wounds in shooting, or if need be Ion Bulwark. If facing an opponent with plenty of big targets, Endless Fury will be swapped for Headsmans Mark.

Edited by sneakybamsen, 13 February 2019 - 10:59 AM.

[sneakybamsen]

Just thought I'd share with you guys how the event went down for me.

 

Game 1 against a pure Cadia list with 3 tank commanders (punisher, lascannon, plasma cannon sponsons), Pask (big plasma cannon, lascannon, plasma cannon sponsons), a Manticore, Wyvern and 3 Basilisks plus infantry and one or two platoon commanders. He seized, and that decided it. He took out my Castigator and a warglaive turn 1 and did some wounds to both the crusader and gallant. I did what I could, but lost everything but the Errant turn two. He was rolling and playing well. Crusader had First Knight and Headsmans Mark. Most grave mistake on my part was completely forgetting to pick up Ion Bulwark on my Castigator and leave Landstrider + Armour of the Sainted Iron for the Gallant. Major error. I made sure not to do that kind of self-eradication in the two following games. Lost 0-20. Luckily my opponent was a good sport.

 

Game 2 put my big robots against Tau. He had Longstrike (Hammerhead character), 3 Hammerheads with big singleshot cannons, a smaller vehicle I don't remember the name of with a lot of missiles, a FW flyer, some drones and some infantry plus a commander, Darkstrider, a suit with 2 stealthdrones and a named suit/robot thing. I got first turn, but got seized on again. This time around I came more prepared and had gotten Ion Bulwark on my Castigator, Landstrider on the Gallant and of course the vehicle-killing loadout on the Crusader (same as game 1). My opponent played well enough, but he didn't have much luck with dice. I ended up tabling him, and even though the last two missions meant tabling wasn't effectively the end of the game, I still was able to rack up enough points to get a 20-0 win. Luckily my opponent was a good sport.

 

In round 3 I played against Necrons with 3 doomscythes (the flyers), 2 doomsday arks, some destroyers, a lord and cryptek, some warriors/immortals, a canoptek spider (I think, single-shot buffer against a target it does damage to) and 6 wraiths. For this game I went with Endless Fury instead of Headsmans Mark on the crusader, which probably wasn't to my advantage, but enough on that for now.

He unfortunately spent a lot of time doing micromanaged deployment and movement during his first turn, where I even had to assist to speed things up, and I think almost an hour and a half had gone before I got my first turn. He had positioned his flyers so that I couldn't really go anywhere (terrain and vanguard strike deployment made that possible, he was in a strong position), so I tried to make sure he couldn't keep all of my knights locked on my part of the table for more than his first turn. I went on to not completely kill any of his planes, but got that fixed in turn two. He brought his wraiths out, but kept all the rest of his army back in his DZ. I could claim the middle of the board, and because he had killed my gallant in shooting, instead of charging it to try to claim the superior objective, I managed a 14-6 win after round 4 (where he rushed me, after he had been slowplaying, albeit not purposefully I think).

 

I ended up in 10th place out of 28, which, considering the first round result, is decent, I think.

 

Regards

Sneaky

[Clingy]

Good report

Cheers sneaky

[sneakybamsen]

Thanks, Clingy