The second day of the Winchester GT would see me play two more games with my World Eaters. The fourth game was against Michael and his Chaos Knights.
Game 4
This mission was Supply Drop on Crucible of Battle with smoke and mirrors. Michael's army consisted of a Knight Desecrator, 5 Brigands and 6 Karnivores.
I had played Chaos Knights a few times recently and had been able to beat them, so felt ok about this. However, Supply Drop is a tough mission for a combat army and a lot of the middle objectives were in the open against the firepower of a Knight army.
I deployed much of my army hidden in the ruins on the bottom of my deployment zone. Michael set up much of his army far back in his deployment zone, safe from most first turn charges. I used smoke and mirrors to put a unit of Jakhals in reserve, along with the 3-man Exalted. In this game, I used the Forgefiend to hold my home objective. It's firepower would not be of great use against the Knights, and the Jakhals would be more useful for move blocking and sacrificing for objectives.
This would come down to who committed first, as his big Knight could kill Angron and Angron could kill the big Knight.
We rolled for the objectives, with the top central objective going turn 4, and the middle objective staying till the end. This was a great result for me. I also lost the roll off to go first, so had bottom of turn scoring to try and get the big points at the end.
In his first turn, Michael moved up a Karnivore on the central and bottom objective. There was little firepower, as most of my units were hidden. The indirect fire managed to kill a couple of Jakhals.
In my first turn, I drew Storm Hostile and Extend Battle Lines. I moved the Spawn up to the top objective. I decided to put the Berzerkers in on turn 1 to go after the middle objective. I used advance and charge, and killed the Karnivore in the middle. My plan was either to use the blood surge to engage if he moved up, or to sticky the objective if they were slain. I would have rather sacrificed the Jakhals, but they couldn't make it onto the objective without charging and they would probably die to the Knight. The higher OC of the Berzerkers would mean I could hold the objective, even if it was sticky. The firepower from the Forgefiend managed to take a Karnivore down to 5 wounds.
In his turn, Michael stayed away from the central objective, and moved towards the top objective. His firepower was able to kill the Berzerkers and MOE. I chose not to blood surge, but instead made the objective sticky, as he was too far away for the blood surge to be effective. This would also force Michael to put a unit up to take the objective back.
He also failed a charge on the Spawn, allowing me to score 10 primary on my second turn.
In my second turn, I got Containment. I moved the Spawn off the objective to do Containment, as they were likely to die anyway, and the Rhino got the second one. The scores were very close, with me being slightly ahead thanks to good secondaries.
In the third turn, another Karnivore moved up to the middle objective, while a Brigand took the top objective. Two Wardogs came in from reserve on my backlines, but were screened out from my home objective. I used rapid ingress to bring in the 3-man Exalted to go after the middle objective in my turn, but safe from the enemy firepower. The Spawn and Rhino were slain by the enemy firepower.
In my turn, I scored no primary. I moved Lord Invocatus up on one Wardog, with the Juggernaught Lord on another. The two Exalted Squads moved up on the middle objective. I brought the Jakhals in to the enemy deployment zone to do Establish Locus. I charged in and killed the central Karnivore and the Jugger characters managed to kill another one each.
In his fourth turn, Michael scored the 8 pts for holding one objective. He then went in with the big Knight and a Karnivore. They were able to kill the 3-man Exalted and five of the 6-man Exalted squad.
In my turn, I went in with Angron and the Eightbound to the centre. The Juggernaught Lord moved up to kill the Wardog on where the top objective was. The Jakahls fell back to score me behind enemy lines.
Angron was able to kill the Knight Desecrator on the middle objective. The Eightbound were able to take the Karnivore down to 2 wounds.
The Karnivore then split its attacks between the Eightbound and Exalted. If he killed the Exalted, he would control the middle objective and get 15 pts, and probably win the game. He was able to kill the Eightbound, but the two wounds on the Exalted were saved on the invun. The Exalted struck back and killed the Karnivore, giving me the central objective.
In his final turn, the three Brigands moved up on the central objective, with two of them moving onto it. They fired, killing the Exalted. The first two Brigands took Angron down to 7 wounds. The final Brigand got one Melta shot through that did 8 damage. I made two of my 6+ FNPs and Angron was alive on a single wound.
One of the Brigands charged but failed to do any damage. Angron struck back, killing it and the Wardog exploded doing a single wound! I rolled my FNP and got a 6, leaving him alive on a single wound!
In my final turn, I moved up the Jugger Lord and Forgefiend onto the objective to grab it and get the 15 pts and win the game!
The end score was 62-46.
What a fantastic game. It really came down to the last few dice rolls. I think I got lucky in this game. Had the final objective been either of the side ones, I think I would have really struggled against the firepower of the Knight army.
I think the battleplan worked well. I didn't want to commit Angron early, as he would likely have been slain and he was the biggest threat to the enemy army. I think if Michael had committed the big Knight and Wardogs on his 5th turn, he could maybe have denied me the primary 15 pts on the final turn by crowding the middle objective.
Game 5- Adam (Blood Angels)
The final game of the day was Take and Hold, with Dawn of War and Swift Action.
Adam's army consisted of Dante and Priest in Vanguard Veterans, two units of 5 Death Company in Rhinos, 5 Jump Death Company, 10 Death Company with Lemartes, 3 units of Scouts, Callidus Assassin, 5 Infiltrators, 5 Jump Assault Intercessors.
I was able to deploy a bit easier, as Adam's army didn't have too much firepower. However, he did use his Scout squads to block off my moves and my own Scout moves. A Rhino went on each flank, while the Vanguard Veterans went in the middle.
Adam got the first turn, moving up the Rhinos onto the side objectives, while two Scout units moved up to block my movement.
In my turn, I used the Jakhals and Forgefiend to kill the two Scout screens. The Berzerkers and MOE charged the Rhino and other unit of Jakhals on the LHS, killing the Rhino and all but two of the Scouts.
In the second turn, the Jump Intercessors moved up on the middle objective, while the Death Company moved up on the Berzerkers. One Death Company jump pack squad moved up on the Forgefiend, while the other moved up on the Eightbound. I used rapid ingress to bring the Exalted into his deployment zone, to go after the home objective in the next turn.
The Intercessors charged and killed the Jakhals. I struck first with the Berzerkers and killed one Scout and the Death Company. Adam was able to use fight on Death to kill all the Berzerkers and left the MOE. Annoyingly, I couldn't use the -1 damage strat on the Berzerkers to try and keep them alive. This was a nice play from Adam, and I forgot about this issue. It might have been better to put more into the Scouts to kill them and kill fewer of the Death Company. This might have allowed me to use the -1 damage strat to keep more of the squad alive and reduce the effectiveness of the fight on death.
The Jump Pack Death Company killed the Eightbound, fight on death allowing me to kill a few of them. The other Jump Pack Death Company were unable to kill the Forgefiend, but damaged it.
In my turn, the Jugger Lord moved up to help the Forgefiend. The MOE went after the lone scout on the objective. The Exalted moved up on the Infiltrators on his home objective. The Forgefiend fired at the Jump Pack Death Company that had killed the Exalted, wiping them out.
The charge phase saw the Jugger Lord kill the Death Company in combat with the Forgefiend, while Lord Invocatus killed the Jump Intercessors in the middle objective, and the MOE killed the last Scout. The 3-man Exalted squad charged the Infiltrators. My plan was to kill them and consolidate onto his home objective, but 2 of the Infiltrators survived after some poor rolling and I was not able to claim the objective.
At the end of the second turn, things were still very close. Adam had the RHS objective locked down, as I was using the Spawn to block the ingress from his Death Company. I had the LHS, but not held by many.
In his third turn, the Infiltrators fell back from the Exalted, while the Vanguard Veterans moved up towards the central objective. I used the Forgefiend to overwatch. With Angron's re-rolls, he was able to kill two of them. The Vets shot at Lord Invocatus, with Dante killing him. He then charged the Forgefiend. However, he rolled a 12 on the charge, meaning he had to surround it and allowing Angron to Heroic into the squad, only allowing one or two to attack him.
This was great for me, as it allowed me to get Angron into combat with a key enemy unit and limit the damage that could be put into him. The Veterans killed the Forgefiend easily, and consolidated into the Jugger Lord on the objective.
Angron then struck. I used Epic Challenge to take out the Priest, as well as 6 more of the Veterans after some poor FNP rolls from Adam. This was a great boost, killing most of the key squad for just the loss of a Forgefiend.
In my turn, Angron moved up on Dante's squad. A Jackal unit moved up on the middle objective. Adam used Ingress to bring in the large Death Company block with Lemartes in front of my LHS units. Angron charged in and killed Dante's squad, while the Exalted killed the Infiltrators to grab his home objective.
In his fourth turn, the Death Company disembarked from the Rhino to head after the Exalted. The Rhino moved up on the Jakhals, while the large Death Company unit strung out to target my lone characters and the Jakhals.
Shooting saw the MOE and Jugger Lord slain by the melta pistols. A few went into Angron, but failed to wound them. He charged the Jakhals in the centre. The Death Company on foot also charged the Exalted Eightbound. The Jakhals in the middle were slain. The Exalted were also killed by the Death Company. I used the strat to make the objective sticky, as the Death Company has no OC without the Chaplain nearby. This would allow me to score the objective in my following turn.
In my turn, I moved up the Exalted and Angron to charge the Death Company in the middle. The spawn moved up on the right to grab the objective. The Exalted struck first, killing half the Death Company, which pulled them out of combat with Angron. It might have been wise to go after them first with Angron, but I figured the fight on death strat he used would allow them to pick up the Exalted easily. However, the fight on death only managed to kill a couple of the Exalted.
In his turn, the Chaplain fell back to give the Death Company OC and recover his home objective. He then used the strat to charge back in with the Chaplain, killing all but one of the Exalted, who I pulled out of combat. The fights back on death failed to kill Lemartes.
The game was very close going into the final round. I got area BeL and no Prisoners. Angron moved up to kill Lemartes, while the Exalted advanced onto the LHS objective and the Rhino grabbed my home objective. The Spawn moved into the enemy deployment zone. Angron was able to kill Lemartes for the two points.
After we scored the game, the result was 71-70 to the World Eaters! A very close win for my army!
Conclusion
At the end of the weekend, I went 4-1, ending up sixth overall at the event. This was my best result at a GT in a long time, and I was very happy with how it went. I had five incredibly close and tactical games, which was great.
Overall, I was happy with how the list performed. I had more practice with the Forgefiend, and it was really helpful in my list. The additional firepower was great for killing screens and finishing off smaller 1-2 man units that I couldn't kill in combat.
I'm going to take this list to the London GT in it's current form. I would ideally drop the Jugger Lord, but there is nothing else worth putting in the list for his points cost that would be better. I'll need to wait to the next points update to see if the list is modified any further.
The army plays nicely into my style. I like the 3-man Exalted for an Ingress threat, and to allow me to score some secondaries. If I had to drop them, I would consider more Spawn or Jakhals to give me more trading threats in the army.
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