Road to East China Open - Sept 2019

[Morticon]

Finished 8th. Necrons beat UM in finals by one point and he takes the tournament!

 

UM second, Tau third.

[Lynnean]

Necron? Damn son! Impressive. Triple croissant?

[Morticon]

Trip croissant, trip Ark, 2*6 destroyers, 9 tomb blades

[Jønke]

How many players total?

[Morticon]

28. Was originally 40. Lots of drops

28. Was originally 40. Lots of drops

[Lynnean]

Trip croissant, trip Ark, 2*6 destroyers, 9 tomb blades

Nice. Thats a scary list.

 

Well done mate! Kind of went as we predicted with the gsc and the unexperienced factor of the opponents!

 

You did sanguinius proud :)

[Jønke]

8th out of 28 is good. Well done mate.

[Morticon]

Thanks, thanks.

 

Think I could have taken the veins comfortably, and the Tau in that match up, too. But, duffed it on game 4.

 

Guess ill have to wait till the next one!!

[Jolemai]

Congrats all the same :)

 

Could you expand on "Ultra-Dread Bubble of Doom" and "Muscle Beach" please?

[Xerxus]

I guess it was a GSC list with a bunch of aberrants.

[Majkhel]

Congratulations Mort! Top 10 (and not the last place!) with a pure BA in a supplement era is still a great accomplishment! :)

[Morticon]

Congrats all the same

 

Could you expand on "Ultra-Dread Bubble of Doom" and "Muscle Beach" please?

 

 

The Ultra list was:

 

Gully

Tiggy

2 Tech Marines

2x 5 Infiltrators

1x5 Scouts

 

2x Honour Guard

Deredo (Pavaise for the 5++)

Dakka Redemptor

Dakka Redemptor

Las Contemptor Mortis

Auto Contemptor Mortis

Thunderfire Cannon

 

 

It works by castling hard with Gman at point, flanked by two Redemptors (but not close enough together). 

It uses the new Tiggy ability (that you choose start of the battle round for -1 to hit to a unit) as well as Might of heroes and veil of time on Gman, to ensure limited combat options.

 

It uses rapid redeploy (Ability to redeploy 3 units of the UM) to bait and lure, and uses the dreads castled again for the Support Fire strat (where 3 units within 6" of the unit youre firing at get to Overwatch).  This second strat means that only the Captain is making it in - as any infantry will be shot by at least 42 S6shots, 8 S8 and 16 S4 - at least.  ALL REROLLING hits...

 

Then, when you target the dreads, the Half Damage strat is popped - and dont forget the Pavaise granting 5++ for shooting.

Then, when you damage the dreads, the Techs are marching up to fix them. 

 

 

In my game against him, I got unlucky (or he got lucky) in turn one, when I had taken his Las Mortis down to 4 wounds.  I then got 3 lascannon wounds, 2 going through - and only did 2 damage. (already used rerolls).

 

That guy then nuked my one Las Mortis -meaning I was now on the backfoot long-range firepower wise.  I may have had a fighting chance if this wasnt the case. 

 

This list is amazing, and you can do a VERY similar thing with Iron Hands, albeit less tactically flexible, but much more tanky.   

 

The infiltrators prevented and screened any kind of attack on the flanks or rear.  

 

And everything is at -2 AP min <_< 

 

 

Horrible list, navigated well meant a tough match up for me.  I think I should have silver-bulletted Gman with the captain and gone hell for leather, but the victrix were still there to tank wounds.  

 

 

[Morticon]

Congrats all the same

 

Could you expand on "Ultra-Dread Bubble of Doom" and "Muscle Beach" please?

 

 

The "Muscle Beach" is the nickname given to Nick Nanaveti's GSC list that had 20 Aberrants from the Annointed Throng special detachment. 

Its a VERY complex, multi+mixed detachment list that combos to allow for the most unreal things ive seen in 40k. 

 

The easier more obvious ones are the Jackal Alpha + Mining Laser Neos with the move and shoot faction - allowing for 3+ hits (rerolling 1s) on a target.  8 lascannons will wreck that (i think they can reroll 1s to wound if im not mistaken). 

 

Combos with the Kellermorph to get +1 to hit on top of this. (Kelermorph is exceptional btw - if you dont know what he does, look it up- super good unit)

 

The other combo is the 18 or so hand flamer acolyte squad, which uses the Lying in Wait strat to come out 3" away.  This combos (if need be) with a WL ability akin to Old Grudges (meaning reroll wounds)  That's 18d6 S3 shots (possibly rerolling wounds). 

 

The biggest punch is in the form of the Aberrants who get buffed psychically for natural S8 and +1 attack (and 4+ FNP either from strat or power- cant remember).  With improvised weapons theyre doing 8 attacks each form the big guys, + tail attacks, while the Pick wielding guys do 3 attacks + rending claw attack.

 

THEN- just in case you thought it was bad.....a strat allows them to attack when theyre killed.  (Pile in and attack). 

 

My opponent rolled so disgustingly hot that I was a bit tilted.  My DC charged -fully buffed- perfect buff - so, Astorath, + Rage + shield.  25 power fist attacks, hitting on 3s rerolling to hit, wounding on 2s !!!!!! All he had was a 4+ FNP (oh, and the ability of the Aberrants to reduce the damage of an attack by 1 ;) )   

 

I killed 6.  off of 21 d3  PF wounds - I even had to fight TWICE with the smash captain JUST to kill the squad.  That ONE unit took out my DC, my Libby Dread, my Smash Captain and 5 scouts. 

 

 

All of this is not mentioning the other acolyte squad of 18 or so with all the rock saws, and the various brood brother squads  as well as the 2 Patriarchs, Magus and Primus in the list. 

 

It truly is an incredible list. 

 

[Demoulius]

Christ those lists are so cheesy I smell them over here

 

Then again its a tournament so only makes sense that people take the nastiest things that they can take

 

Grats on 8th spot Mort. Nice achievement!  

[Jolemai]

Cheers.

 

Out of interest, what was he/she using to represent the pavaise of the Deredeo? Only that's not been released yet ...

[Morticon]

Good question!!!! I think if memory serves, it was just the missiles...mnnn.....sneaky

[Shaezus]

Gratz on the top 10 placing, matey. A higher placing was more deserved methinks, but for those dice reminding everyone who's the real boss lol

 

That dread list is a tough prospect first time around, I played against it in a warm - up last week and the overwatch strat and damage reduction thing caught me unawares. BA have perhaps one of the best tools to deal with it I reckon, if you can time and position things right with smash cap and DC / San guard in joint assault.

 

Hopefully see you in Hong Kong!

Edited September 17, 2019 by Shaezus

[Morticon]

Gratz on the top 10 placing, matey. A higher placing was more deserved methinks, but for those dice reminding everyone who's the real boss lol

 

That dread list is a tough prospect first time around, I played against it in a warm - up last week and the overwatch strat and damage reduction thing caught me unawares. BA have perhaps one of the best tools to deal with it I reckon, if you can time and position things right with smash cap and DC / San guard in joint assault.

 

Hopefully see you in Hong Kong!

 

 

That would be good, my friend!!! I hope you make it.  I think your BA combo is fearsome. 

 

How did the barebones 15man DC play for you?? And how was Astorath in your list?

[Shaezus]

 

Gratz on the top 10 placing, matey. A higher placing was more deserved methinks, but for those dice reminding everyone who's the real boss lol

That dread list is a tough prospect first time around, I played against it in a warm - up last week and the overwatch strat and damage reduction thing caught me unawares. BA have perhaps one of the best tools to deal with it I reckon, if you can time and position things right with smash cap and DC / San guard in joint assault.

Hopefully see you in Hong Kong!

 

 

That would be good, my friend!!! I hope you make it. I think your BA combo is fearsome.

How did the barebones 15man DC play for you?? And how was Astorath in your list?

Really, really happy with them. It took a little practice to get a feel for how they can be used in the list as they are a polar opposite style to the sicarans they replaced, but well worth it. In games where there was enough LoS blocking terrain I deployed them out of sight. In game 2 vs eldar I went second and he nicely left them enough room to UWoF into his zone, slaughter his guardians and his eldrad and two other characters and seize his objective, pretty much wrapping up the game.

 

Game 4 vs orks I went first and used UWoF in tandem with FF on smash cap. It was brutal. They just swatted aside a 30 - man mob of Boyz, some grots and a weirdboy, leaving the gap the San guard needed to drop into and clear up his whole back line. It was great to see it work and drew a few awed remarks from the guys who were watching.

 

Astorath...he only got to use mass of doom once, but if I needed to keep the DC alive I could drop him in turn 2 to give them the fearless effect, otherwise daisy chain to use his melee re rolls. He's not too shabby in melee himself. Well worth the points.

 

How did your fisty DC with Astorath work out?

Edited September 17, 2019 by Shaezus

[Morticon]

Overall really happy - minus the bounce against the Aberrants <_<

 

They took out a Knight in combat on the charge, some RG terminators, and helped clean up the Death Guard.  They went down cheaply vs the UM, but that was my inexperience with the list/style. 

 

In my practice game theyve been great.  I dont know if I could be tempted to play more of them - i dont like "lynchpin" style units/playstyles for me -but the idea of 15 of them is very appealing.  The 5 fists was exactly what was needed. 

[Morticon]

Some post tourney thoughts on units: 

Smashy -

Does what he says on the box.  Actually wound up using Gift of Foresight twice with the matchups - was expecting Artisans the whole way. Nothing much to add here.  This is a silly unit. (i happy we have him)

 

Phobos Libby - 
Wonderful addition.  He took little to know fire, and most games really just provided the support needed to other units. Rarely got engaged in combat, but threw the buffs out when needed.  I really liked how he played.  He wasn't a necessity, or a game changer, but a great force multiplier. He is likely to be the first unit I drop though if I want to go a battalion. 

 

Libby Dread - 

Again, great, great unit that everyone fears.  Amazing what a viable points drop can do.   Tactical and flexible and hits hard.  Another "does what it says on the box" type unit. 

 

Astorath - 

When MoD and rerolls got off they were AMAZING! But, i feel like if I could find the points, maybe possibly Sanguinor could be better? Because of Reliance on MoD, Astorath winds up being played very defensively - this means that in almost all games he was a late game unit that engaged - for 105 points this wasn't a bad investment.   In the one or two games where the jumpies are around Asty and he pops MoD, and then the VV use wings of Fire- that was cool!! So, yeah, I'm not sure.  I think he's great...but requires a lot more finesse. 

 

Scouts - 

LOVED the sniper scouts. The most frequent comment on them is that they dont seem to do enough.  The thing is that the occassional 4 MW over 3 turns from both squads is realy, really good to harrass and force the enemy to play a little differently.  On top of that, they take different positions on the battlefield and draw fire because of this harassment.

Regular scout squads rarely engaged, and were played as cheap objective holders that tried to stay out of LOS as much as possible. 

 

Primaris - 

I think for how much list played, these guys could have been better with Stalkers. Too often they were reinforcing the backfield objectives (as scouts go down quickly) and as a result contributed the least out of all the units. 

 

 

Vanguard - 

Solid.  Chunky shield squad with some specials was great.  I dont think i'll play them with less than 4 fists in future.  2 fists and a maul was all i could afford this time round, but it wasn't enough. They won games with their shields - and I think if i play them again, I'll push towards 10man units.  Real workhorse unit that helped a variety of tactical options.  Essentially won me the DeathGuard game by tying up 2 deredos from first turn for the entirety of the match. 

 

 DC -

Five fists the way to go.  Asty + Rage combo and you're singing. I loved the big squad (im used to 8man) and i loved the damage output of the fists.  The flamers didnt always come in handy, but i felt that for 5 points, they were a very worthwhile addition. 

 

Invictor - 
Wow. Just...wow.  Can i suggest that if you enjoy playing BA - go out and buy yourselves one (maybe two?!) of these bad boys NOW.   This guy was my superstar unit.  He only underperformed once, and in that game, drew so much firepower, it was okay.  He didn't always destroy a massive amount of stuff, but the ability for him to put on forward pressure was exceptional.  He is SUCH a versatile unit.  In my knight game, the opponent recognised him as a distraction carnifex, and as a result focussed on my las contemptors instead.  This allowed him to flank the backline and claim his objective, completely  wrecking the support forces of the Knights.   He provided cover and charge support for the BA vs the Death Guard and in the GSC match up was one of the last units to die - keep a fair deal of units away from him.  Until this guy gets a likely 20point nerf, I dont see myself NOT using him. 

Attack Bikes- 
GREAT!!! Mobile, hardy (4wounds) and lay down some fair firepower.  These guys are a HUGE winner in the new SM dex, and I think you're going to see a LOT of them. They dont fight that well, but 74 points with 8x T5 wounds is great.  Under 7PL (so cant be target of Marked for Death) means they're an annoying unit to have to deal with.  Bigger dread size bases means they have potential to do blocking shenanigans.

Contemptor Mortis- 
Workhorse unit that I will have in my lists for as long as I'm allowed FW and as long as they stay as reasonably priced. These guys are game changers in my list.  

 

[Remtek]

How do you rate the Death Company when going second? I kinda gave up on them a long time ago, but hearing them perform well gets me all warm and fuzzy inside  

[Morticon]

I lost the roll for 1st in 4 of 5 games.  The factor that made a difference was terrain.  If you're playing in terrain poor environments, you have issues.  If you're playing with good, tactically relevant terrain, you can use them well!

[CaptainHelion]

What loadout do you take on the Invictor? I'm pretty torn between them. Also, what guns are you running the Attack Bikes with?

[Charlo]

Nice to see the classic combined arms Mort list do well. Inspiring stuff.

 

While I hate the design of the War Suit, I definitely need to convert up a more traditional Dread looking one.