I recently attended the Fire and Dice tournament in High Wycombe, taking my new World Eaters army to a tournament for the first time. I had been playing them in the gaming club league for a couple of weeks, so wanted to see how they would perform against some different lists.
This tournament was a tribute to Sid Sidhu, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Sid was a staple of the tournament scene and a lovely person, who was a big supporter of the tournaments that we host at the club. It was really nice to see everyone come together for a great day of gaming and a nice tribute to his memory.
My army consisted of:
Angron
Kharn the Betrayer
Lord Invocatus
Lord on Juggernaught
10 Berzerkers
Rhino
5 Berzerkers
5 Berzerkers
10 Jackals
3 Exalted Eightbound
6 Exalted Eightbound
3 Eightbound
2 Chaos Spawn
This is a slight modification of the old WE meta list. I took some extra Berzerkers and the Spawn for some objective holding. The army moves surprisingly fast, and hits extremely hard in combat. It has next to no shooting, just a few plasma pistols littered around.
My opponent for game 1 was Chris with his Iron Hands. The army consisted of:
Ironstorm Spearhead
Iron Father Feirros
Phobos Librarian
Techmarine- Target Augury Web
Lieutenant with Combi-weapon- The Flesh is Weak
Techmarine
10 Heavy Intercessors- 2 Heavy Bolters
5 Infiltrators
5 Scouts
5 Scouts
3 Inceptors- Assault Bolters
3 Inceptors- Assault Bolters
3 Eradicators
Ballistus Dreadnaught
Ballistus Dreadnaught
Gladiator Reaper
Repulsor Executioner- Macro Plasma Incinerator
Repulsor Executioner- Heavy Laser Destroyer
A vehicle-heavy list that could be difficult for the World Eaters, but the +1 to wound stratagem would be very handy against it.
This was an event using the UKTC rules, so the first mission was Priority Targets on Dawn of War. This was a good layout for me, as there is plenty of space to hide behind the objectives in the centre and gives me some cover for moving my units up the board.
I deployed the Rhino (with Kharn and 10 Berzerkers), 5 Berzerkers, Eightbound and the Spawn on the left ruins, the Jackals and Jugger Lord in the middle ruins, the Exalted Eightbound and Lord Invocatus on the line, and Angron and 5 Berzerkers in the big ruin on the right. I put the 3-man Exalted in Deep Strike.
Chris deployed one big tank on each side. The Heavy Intercessors (with Iron Father) and Infiltrators (with Librarian) in the big ruins on his right. The two Dreadnaughts and Techmarine went in the middle ruin on the objective. The Scouts deployed just outside my deployment zone in the middle and right to block my Scout moves with my army, Chris kept them off the objectives so as not to give up any secondaries in the first turn. The Gladiator Reaper, Inceptors and Eradicators went in reserve.
We both chose to play Tactical and I won the roll off for first turn.
TURN 1
I advanced Angron on the RHS to get into cover behind the ruins. while the Exalted Eightbound moved up behind the ruins on the centre. The Spawn, Eightbound and Rhino moved up on the left into the cover of the ruins.
In the charge phase, the Spawn charged the Scouts, but only managed to kill 3 of them. My plan was to kill them, then consolidate back onto the objective behind the ruins. I didn't charge the Scouts in the middle, as this would have left my Exalted Eightbound in the open with most of the enemy firepower targeting them. I didn't need to go after them yet as they weren't on the objective so wouldn't be scoring any points.
I didn't score any secondary points on my first turn, discarding them for a CP.
In his first turn, Chris moved the tanks on each flank to target my units. The Heavy Intercessors moved up towards the Spawn. The Scouts chose not to fall back from the Spawn.
The Repulsor fired at Angron, but the Plasma cannon failed to do any damage and the smaller arms fire took a few wounds off of him, thanks to the anti-fly 2+ shots. The other Repulsor destroyed the Rhino, but fortunately no Berzerkers perished.
In the charge phase, the Heavy Intercessors and Iron Father charged the Spawn and onto the objective. I used my 2CP to heroic with the Berzerkers and Kharn. The Intercessors struck first and killed 5 of the Berkerkers. I struck back, but only managed to kill 5 of the Heavy Intercessors. I forgot to use the strat on +1 to wound, which would have helped considerably, allowing me to wound the T6 Intercessors on a 3, rather than a 4. The Spawn failed to kill any of the Scouts and I took no damage in reply.
Chris scored 7 pts for his secondaries for Area Denial and Bring it Down.
TURN 2
In my second turn, I got 10VP on the primary, as well as drawing Engage and Storm Hostile Objective.
I moved Angron up on the right flank to target the Repulsor, moving up the Berzerkers from the backfield ruins to hold the objective he vacated. The Juggernaught Lord moved up to deal with the Scouts in the centre. I got advance and charge for the blessings of Khorne roll and took the FNP boost as well.
On the left flank, the Berzerkers advanced to help out with the ongoing combat, while the Eightbound also moved up to support.
In the charge phase, the Berzerkers and Eightbound charged the Heavy Intercessors on the left, while Angron charged the Repulsor and the Lord charged the Scouts in the centre.
The combat on the left saw the Spawn kill the last of the Scouts, while the rest took the squad down to the Iron Father and one Heavy Intercessor for the loss of Kharn's Berzerker squad. Angron easily destroyed the Repulsor, while the Juggernaught Lord only managed to kill three of the Scouts.
I scored 8 pts on my secondaries. He drew Deploy Teleport Homers and Secure No Mans Land.
Chris only got a 5 on the Primary. The Heavy Intercessors and Iron Father fell back from combat, while the Infiltrators moved up to block a charge on the other Repulsor. The Dreadnaughts moved out to target my forces. The reserves came in, with the Gladiator Reaper coming in to the middle, while the Eradicators set up opposite Angron. He then deep struck one unit of Inceptors in the left of my deployment zone (to do Homers), while the other landed on the right flank in the centre to target the Berzerkers on the objective.
I then used Rapid Insertion to bring in the Exalted Eightbound in my deployment zone, ready to go after the Inceptors next turn.
In the shooting phase, the Eradicators and Dreadnaught opened fire on Angron, killing him. The Inceptors killed the Berzerkers on the objective, but I used the stratagem to sticky the objective after the unit died, so kept it under my control.
The firepower on the right flank did not do well, only killing the Berzerkers accompanying Kharn, but leaving him alive and killing one of the Eightbound. I was expecting that flank to die, but I had most of my forces left alive to cause havoc.
There were no charges, and Chris scored Deploy Teleport Homers.
TURN 3
In my turn, I got another 10 on the Primary mission. For my blessings, I got the triple 6 to bring back Angron and advance and charge!
Kharn and the Berzerkers moved up on the forces on the left flank. The Eightbound moved back to grab the objective, while the Spawn moved back to target the Inceptors. In the middle, the large Exalted Eightbound unit advanced towards the Gladiator and Dreadnaught, supported by the resurrected Angron. The other Exalted squad moved up to kill the other Inceptor unit.
In the charge phase, Angron failed his charge, but the Exalted made it in with a re-roll. The Spawn charged the Inceptors on the left, while the Exalted charged the Inceptors on the right. Kharn and the Berzerkers charged the Infiltrators, while the Iron Father used heroic intervention to join the combat.
The Exalted killed the Gladiator and Ballistus Dreadnaught, while Kharn killed the Infiltrators, leaving the Librarian alive. The Exalted Eightbound killed the Inceptors, while the Spawn only killed one Inceptor.
In his turn, The vehicles moved up to target the Exalted in his deployment zone, while the Inceptors fell back. The shooting managed to kill the Exalted to leave the Lord Invocatus alive, while the Iron Father killed a few Berzerkers in the fight phase.
TURN 4
The writing was on the wall in the game now, I was moving ahead on the primary and secondary and Chris had few resources left. Angron and the Juggernaught characters killed the Dreadnaught and Techmarine. Kharn killed the Librarian and the Iron Father fell to the Eightbound. The Spawn charged the Inceptors, but failed to kill any, tying them up and stopping them from shooting at other units.
In his turn, the last Repulsor fired, but failed to kill Angron. The Inceptors fell back once more.
TURN 5
Angron moved up to kill the Repulsor, while the Lord Invocatus and Juggernaught Lord killed the Lieutenant and Eradicators.
The game ended there, with a 96-38 victory to the World Eaters.
AFTER-BATTLE THOUGHTS
Thanks to Chris for a fun game, it could have ended a lot closer than the scoreline suggests if a few more things had gone his way.
I think my game plan worked very well. I was a bit concerned when Kharn and the Berzerkers performed the Heroic Intervention into the Heavy Intercessors. They did some great punching and took out half the squad before they got to strike, and my reply was not as brutal as I thought it would be! Had I remembered to use the +1 to wound stratagem, I think I would have done a lot more damage to steal the objective.
The Repulsors didn't do that great either. One completely fluffed its attacks against Angron, allowing him to kill it in the following turn. The other only really killed a Rhino, and a few other bits of damage, but don't think it was worth the points.
Chris said that he misplayed and should have put the two Repulsors together. Had he killed Angron, I would have had fewer resources to take out his vehicles. I think this mission favoured me a bit, as there was lots of space to hide my units in the middle objectives and Chris was not aggressive enough to try and score the primary. Putting his Scouts on the objectives would have forced me to come deal with them as he got the primary, leaving my units in the open to be shot and potentially killed.
I think his plan was to kill me off the board and grab the objectives later in the game, where you can score up to 15 pts for holding 3 objectives at the end of the game. However, I was not as aggressive as he was expecting, choosing to hide on the objectives for a few turns, then going to for attack when I got advance and charge on a blessing.
The World Eaters stratagems are great, and most were very useful in this game. Getting to keep an objective when your units dies on it is great for 1CP and meant I could score more points when units are killed off of it.
The Spawn were a recent addition and I was impressed with them. They are cheap and very durable with a 4+ FNP when the blessing is activated, so it actually takes a lot to kill them.
Overall, a great start to the day. My next game would see me take on the Hypercrypt Necrons.
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