UKTC Oxford Super Major- Tournament Review Day 1

I recently attended the first Oxford Super Major held by the UKTC. This was a new event for 2024 in the area, and I was keen to try it out since it was so local to me. I decided to take my World Eaters, as I have been using them a lot recently in the club league and they are one of the most competitive armies that I currently own. 

Overall, I had a great time at the event. The venue was really nice and spacious. There was space on each table to place models, drinks, etc, and plenty of space to move around the hall and between tables, something that is not always the case at UKTC events. The event seemed to run really smoothly and I had some tough games, with no easy wins over the course of the weekend. 

The list I took was:

Angron

Master of Execution- Berserkers Glaive

Lord Invocatus

10 Berzerkers

Rhino

5 Berzerkers

5 Berzerkers

10 Jackals

10 Jackals

6 Exalted Eightbound

3 Exalted Eightbound

3 Eightbound

2 Chaos Spawn

I decided to take a second unit of Jackals for screening and move blocking purposes. I swapped out Kharn for the Master of Execution, as he is better into a lot of the meta units at the moment. 

GAME 1- DEATH GUARD

My first game was against Robby and his Death Guard. His list consisted of a couple of units of Plague Marines with the Fights first and grenades characters in Rhinos. They also had the anti-infantry flamers. He also had two units of Terminators with characters, two Bloat drones, one Plagueburst Crawler and three Wardog Brigands as allies. 

This was going to be a tough one for the World Eaters. Two units with anti-infantry flamers and overwatch would limit my movement and make the high toughness of the Eightbound units useless. Fights first would also be tough, as it would make charges more difficult. Plus, three Brigands would provide a lot of shooting firepower. 

The first mission was Priority Targets with Dawn of War. 

I followed my standard deployment for UKTC, hiding Angron in the big ruins with the eightbound and a unit of Berzerkers. I put the Lord Invocatus and Jackals units in the centre, with the rest on the ruins to the left. 

Robby deployed across his deployment zone, but kept the Plague Marine units out of the Rhinos, presumably to overwatch if I decided to go for it on turn 1. 

I got the first turn and decided to play a bit more cagey. I drew Teleport Homers and Extend Battle lines, a very good draw. The Jackals scouted and moved up to do Homers, while I advanced a unit of Berzerkers on the left to get the objective. I held the other unit of 5 back as I didn't need them to score primary. 
Robby moved some units up for scoring his secondaries, and fired some of his indirect, killing a few of the Jackals. He scored some points, but I didn't lose much of my army. 

Next turn, I moved up the Berzerkers on the right to secure the objective and moved the Jackals onto the middle objective. I didn't do any charges, and just held off to hold the objectives and score my secondaries. Robby Rapid Ingressed a unit of Terminators towards the centre. 

In his turn, the Bloat Drone and Terminators moved up on my left objective, while the Plague Marines went in the centre. The Brigands moved to see the Berzerkers, while the Rhino moved up to secure the objective. I rapid ingressed the Exalted Eightbound onto the big objective on my right, ready to move up next turn. Shooting took out the Berzerkers on the right and whittled down the Jackals. The Terminators and Drone charged the Berzerkers, killing them, while the Plague Marines charged the Jackals in the middle objective, killing them. 

In my third turn, I got advance and charge and went for it. On the left, the Spawn and Master of Executions went after the Terminators and Drone. The Jackals moved up towards the centre objective, hoping to draw out the overwatch, while the Eightbound and Lord Invocatus went up to the ruins in front. Angron moved up with the two other Eightbound units. 

Some shooting took the drone down to a few wounds. 

I then went for it. With the Fights First in the Plague Marines, I needed to plan this carefully. The Jackals went in first, tying up as many Plague Marines as I could in base to base contact. The Exalted Eightbound went into one Plague Marine and a Drone, Angron went into a character and the Eightbound also made the charge. 

The Spawn charged the Terminators to soak up the overwatch, followed by the Master and Berzerkers. The other Exalted went into the Rhino. 

The Plague Marines struck, but only managed to kill the Jackals, failing to harm the other units. I then struck back and the unit and Drone were slain. The Master of Execution was able to kill the Terminators and Character with the Devastating wounds and help from the Berzerkers, who also killed the Drone. The Exalted failed to kill the Rhino. 

A good turn for me, taking out a number of threats, but they still had some left. I had the Berzerkers safe behind the ruins, and the Exalted tying up the Rhino in combat. The middle was in trouble though against the enemy firepower. 

In his turn, Robby moved up to engage my forces. The firepower killed all the Eightbound in the centre, leaving the Lord Invocatus. Angron took a few wounds, but not enough to worry him. The Eightbound were also slain. 

The Plague Marines charged the centre objective and killed the Lord Invocatus. 

In my turn, I got Bring it Down, so sent the Berzerkers after the Rhino on the objective and Angron after a Brigand that had moved up. Angron killed the Wardog, consolidating onto the objective, while the Berzerkers killed the Rhino. 

Robbie moved up the Terminators onto the objective with the Berzerkers, while the Plague Marines moved to secure the objective. 

The firepower into Angron killed him, and I used the stratagem to sticky the objective he was on when he died. The Exalted were also slain. 

On the other flank, the Wardog fired at the Berzerkers, but despite getting 10 wounds through only one fell. This allowed me to Blood Surge into his Terminators. They fired their pistol flamers, killing a couple more. 

However, I got to strike first in combat and wiped out the squad with the Master of Execution. 

In my final turn, I hid the Berzerkers and moved the Rhino up to charge the Brigand and Crawler to cut down its shots and stop it charging onto the objective. 

Robbie moved to secure the objectives he could and score his cards. At the end of a very close game, I won the game 92-83. A very tough game and good victory for the World Eaters. 

For his contagion, Robbie chose -1 save rather than -1 WS and BS, which surprised me. Given the invulnerable saves on my Eightbound and Angron, I would have gone for the WS and BS reduction, which would have had a bigger impact on my damage output throughout the game. 

I was very happy with how the game went. The strategy with the Jackals into the Fights First unit was something I hadn't tried before and it worked really well, keeping my hard hitting units safe to wipe them out with only the loss of the Jackals. 

I was planning to use the Spawn to take the overwatch with the anti-infantry flamers (as they don't have the Infantry keyword), but this didn't pan out. If I charged them in, they would likely die to the attacks of the Plague Marines anyway, as they hit pretty hard. 

I did get lucky in this game, as my FNP rolls were incredible throughout, and they really kept me in the game. It was a very close game that Robby played well, I just had some luck on my side. The Blood Surge into the Terminators was also great, allowing me to clear them off the objective for little loss to the squad. The Master of Executions was incredible, killing two Terminators units and a Rhino, pretty much on his own. 

GAME 2- TYRANIDS

My second game was against Byron and his monster-heavy Tyranids list. We were playing Supply Drop with Search and Destroy deployment. 

His army consisted of two Tyrannofex, three Exocrines, three Maleceptors, Deathleaper, a Neurotyrant, a Biovore, a Trygon, two Neurolictors, Parasite and a Ripper Swarm. 

I deployed to hide most of the army from the firepower of the Nids. Byron put his forward deployers on the objectives, with the rest of the big bugs on the line. Byron won the roll off for first turn. We rolled for the objectives, with the middle left going first and the middle right staying till the end of the game. 

He moved up the Tyrannofex onto the middle objective, supported by the Malecptors. Deathleaper and a Neurolictor moved up to target my Berzerkers and Spawn behind the ruins on my left. One Exocrine managed to get sight on the Spawn, killing one. Deathleaper and the Neurolictor charged the Berzerkers and Spawn, but only managed to kill the Spawn. I had Fight on Death for my blessing and was able to put a few wounds on the Lictor. 

In my turn, I had Advance and Charge activated, so went for it, as I drew Assassination and Area Denial. The large Exalted unit and Berzerks with Master moved up to take the centre, staying out of line of sight to avoid overwatch with the big flamer in the middle. The other 5 Berzerkers moved to grab the objective on the bottom right. 

Angron moved to kill the characters, as he didn't have the move to get onto the central objective. I charged everything in. The Berzerkers and Eightbound engaged the Tyrannofex and a Maleceptor and failed to kill either of them, while Angron took down the Neurolictor and Deathleaper. 

I thought I was in big trouble now. The main assault had bounced hard, and I was exposed to the entire enemy army. Fortunately, the attacks back were pretty ineffective, and only a single Exalted fell. 

Bryon's turn began with an incredible bit of luck for me. The Tyrannofex failed his Ld test to fall back and had to stay locked in combat with my two units, keeping them safe from the enemy firepower!

He moved his units up to the objectives, but there was little shooting that could be done as much of the rest of my army was hidden. 

The Exocrines took out the 5 Berzerkers on the bottom right and another did a few wounds on Angron. The combat in the middle stayed undecided, with my forces being unable to do much harm to the big monsters, while they didn't have the damage output to deal with my units. 

In my second turn, Byron activated the Shadow in the warp, and the Exalted in the middle failed their battleshock test, as did a couple of other units. 

Angron moved up to support the middle. The remaining Exalted and Lord Invocatus fell back towards Byron's home objective, then charged in and killed the Biovore holding it. Angron charged in and killed an Exocrine, while the Exalted killed a Maleceptor. Angron was able to trap the other Maleceptor in the middle from falling back, to keep me safe in the next turn.The Tyrannofex took a few more wounds thanks to the re-rolls from Angron. 

Bryon brought in his Trygon to my deployment zone to score Teleport Homers, while the rest moved into position or were locked in combat. I rapid ingressed the Exalted to go after the Omega objective. Shooting into Angron did a few wounds on him. He then killed the Malecptor in combat, while the combat between the Tyrannofex and Berzerkers continued. 

In my turn, Angron went after the Omega objective, while the Exalted moved up to support him. The Eightbound went to hunt the Trygon. I charged in, easily killing the Parasite on the objective. The Eightbound took the Trygon down to a couple of wounds, and two were slain in reply. 

I finally managed to kill the Tyrannofex in the middle, leaving the Berzerkers holding the objective. 

Byron then moved up a Maleceptor and Neurolictor to try and take the middle objective, while the other Tyrannofex and Exocrine moved to target the Exalted Eightbound on the Omega objective. Shooting took down one of the Berzerkers. 

In the charge phase, the Exocrine and Tyrannofex charged the Exalted, and I Heroically Intervened with Angron into the Tyrannofex. The Maleceptor and Neurolictor charged the Berzerkers and Master of Exectuion. He struck first and managed to kill the Neurolictor. The Maleceptor then fluffed, failing to kill anything and ensuring I would score 16 pts on the primary for holding the 2 remaining objectives. Angron killed the Tyrannofex. 

After that, the game was pretty much done. Angron killed another Exocrine, and I got 31 pts for the primary in the last 2 turns. The game ended with a World Eaters win at 92-44.

Byron was a real pleasure to play against. I thought I was in real trouble after turn 1 when my army bounced in the centre. Fortunately, the damage ouptut of the big monsters was not that great, so my army was able to survive for several turns to slowly chip away at the big monsters and kill them off. Angron was great for picking up the big monsters easily, and stood on the final objective to get me the big 15 pts. 

I'm not sure what else would have worked for Byron. He went aggressive with the monsters to hold the objectives, but struggled to bring the firepower to bear, as most of my army was in combat or hidden during the game. The Tyranids just don't have the damage output to do a lot against tougher targets at the moment. I did get very lucky with the Tyrannofex failing the test to fall back, as this helped keep my 2 big threat units alive throughout the game. 

GAME 3- NECRONS

My next game was into Necrons, running Annihilation Legion. This army had 3 Ctan, 3 units of Flayed Ones, a big unit of Scarabs and a lot of Destroyers. 

This was Purge the Foe on sweeping engagement deployment. Sadly, I won the roll for first turn, which is tricky on purge the foe. 

We deployed as shown below. 

I got first turn and got Teleport Homers. I made the mistake of going up with the Jackals to get this. I scored the 5 points, but gave away the 8 pts for purge in my opponent's turn, as he was able to move up the Flayed Ones to kill them. I was pretty tired after a couple of tough games, so made a lot of mistakes in this one. 

In my second turn, I got Overwhelming Force, so decided to go for it, as I had advance and charge as well. I moved the Eightbound on the right, Angron up the middle, with the Berzerkers and MOE and Exalted in the middle. 

The MOE and Berzerkers charged a Ctan, the Berzerkers went into the Scarabs. Angron took on some Flayed ones and the Eightbound took on some units on another objective. The MOE struck at the Ctan, doing 8 damage, but he made 5 of 8 FNP. The Berzerkers then took him down to a single wound! The Ctan then struck back, killing the MOE with Epic Challenge. 

The Exalted killed the Scarabs and consolidated into some Flayed Ones, while Angron and the Eightbound took out the units they were in combat with. 

In his turn, my opponent passed the Ld test to fall back with the Flayed Ones, which meant my Exalted and Berzerkers were dead. The shooting took out all of the Exalted and the Eightbound. In the charge phase, the Ctan killed the Berzerkers and Lord Invocatus. 

The game was pretty much over at this point, but I played on to try and score some more points. 

In my third turn, I sent Angron after the Necron home objective, forgetting to bring in my Exalted Eightbound from reserve (which would come back to haunt me!). Angon killed a unit on the Necron home and managed to get Capture Enemy Outpost. 

In the Necron 3rd turn, they moved up to target my forces. I remembered about the Eightbound and used my last CP to rapid ingress them in so they wouldn't be destroyed.

The firepower took Angron down to 9 wounds. He was then charged by the Flayed Ones and a Scarab unit. One Scarab blew up, but he rolled a 1 and it did no damage. The Flayed Ones struck. Thanks to the damage to Angron and the detachment rules/stratagems, they managed to go 70 hits on Angron and around 40 wounds. 

I rolled pretty well as they were only AP -1 and left Angron on a single wound. The Scarabs then struck doing a single wound. I failed my 2+ save and he died, having no CP left to re-roll it! He did fight on death to take out the Flayed Ones. 

I had about 2 units left and the board was swamped with Necrons. The game ended with a Necron win, 95-68.

This was always going to be a tough one, as Ctan are difficult to get through for much of the World Eaters. To be honest, leaving the Ctan on a single wound in turn 2 probably cost me the game. If the Nightbringer had died, the Berzerkers and MOE would have been free to kill another Ctan or go after the rest of the Necron army in my next turn. 

My opponent didn't have the firepower in one unit to wipe them out, so any shooting at them would have allowed me to Blood Surge into the other Ctan and fight first into it to hopefully kill it off with the MOE and Berzerkers. As the Nightbringer survived on a wound, he was able to snipe out the MOE with epic challenge and destroy my best weapon against the Ctan. It was just unlucky, as he spiked the FNP rolls on the Nightbringer against the MOE. The odds were on for me to kill it in combat, the the dice weren't with me. 

I think going in on turn 2 was a mistake. Waiting till turn 3 might have brought more units closer to me, to allow me to get more units in to combat and do more damage to the enemy army. It was difficult to get at the Destroyers, and they were great against me. The flat damage 6 on their guns was perfect for dealing with Angron and the Exalted Eightbound and Eightbound. 

I made a lot of mistakes in this game and paid the price. I think if this was one of the earlier games in the day, I might have played it a bit better.