Is unrestricted 40k madness in the making or actually balanced by fighting fire with fire? Checkout the recent 40kthulu Moutains of Madness event!
Modern day 40k tournaments are full of restriction. 0-1 Low, no more than 3 detachments, no titans…the list goes on. I have no problem with these, in fact, they help make events more balanced.
However, every now and then a tournament will appear that has no such restrictions. The only guideline is battleforged 40k. One such tournament recently appeared in my area. Initially, I was not very interested. Unrestricted 40k!? That is Insane! But I kept thinking it over and decided that it could be great way to see what KDK can really do. And so, I set about making an army list that I felt comfortable with in the UNRESTRICTED setting, and I came up with the following:
| Khorne Daemonkin Combined Arms Detachment | |||||
| HQ | |||||
| Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, Warlord | |||||
| Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage | |||||
| Troops | |||||
| 9 Bloodletters | |||||
| 8 Cultists | |||||
| Fast Attack | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| Gorepack | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 5 Flesh Hounds | |||||
| 3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs | |||||
| 3 Chaos Bikes, Melta bombs | |||||
| Lord of War | |||||
| Chaos Knight Paladin of Khorne, Dirge Caster | |||||
This list has its weaknesses. 5 Wraithknights for example, would destroy me. But I built this list with one idea in mind: to beat Deathstars. There is nothing I hate more than losing to a Deathstar. Ever since I lost to Aaron Aleong at The Nova Open, the ability to beat Deathstars has been my number one priority in every list. And so, with that in mind, I set out to the tournament.
The tournament was a mix of tactical and end game objectives with a few kill point objectives sprinkled in. There was also a separate award for “insanity” and “sanity” points. You would earn points for each one depending on certain things in your list. Such as rolling a 6 on D or stomp, your total mastery level, or killing psykers. It was not totaled into overall scoring, but it was a lot of fun and the winners got some cool trophies.
Round 1:
Round saw me up against the most insane list of them all! 5 Libarius Conclaves and a Culexus assassin! We faced off in a 5 objective game with kill points as secondary. My opponent got all sorts of powers and started turn 1 by summoning daemons left and right! But unfortunately, Ezekiel exploded when trying to make some daemons and I won first blood! After lots of summoning, the conclaves surfed some terrain to get closer to the Culexus assaisn and power up his shooting! Which, unloaded on some chaos bikers. But, Khorne defended them! And I passed 8 of 9 cover saves to keep them alive! In my turn 1 I advanced toward the psykers and their summoned daemons. My opponent has advanced a bit too close to me with his conclaves, and my knight was able to pull off a 9 inch charge and kill 3 librarians! The dogs also swiftly eliminated the assassin and some summoned daemons. The rest of the game consisted of my opponent surfing terrain to avoid combat and summoning as many daemons as possible, but ultimately, the hounds were able to run everything down. At the end of turn 6, my opponent only had a flying Lord of Change remaining, and I had not given up any kill points. It was a good day for Khorne. Preferred Enemy Psykers was a big deal in this game! 24-0 victory for KDK.
MVP: Chaos Knight. He kept the pressure on the conclave and pulled off critical charges when he needed to.
Most memorable moment: When my opponent used shifting worldscape to get out of combat with my Knight. We looked it up and saw no reason it would not work. He was fully in the terrain, and my knight was not!
Round 2:
This match put me up against a BA death company Deathstar full of Iron priests and Librarians from a conclave, as well as Astorath the Grim! He also had the FW whirlwind that shoots S8AP3 small blasts that negate cover due to a special relic. We faced off in a tactical objective and end game objective game. With the Knight and 2 D-Thirsters, I liked my odds. I was able to spread out early and score big on tactical objectives, but the game really came down to a critical moment in round 2. I had advanced my knight and screened him with hounds, while my D-Thirsters sat just behind the knight, ready to counter assault. My opponent planned to shoot down and screen, and then assault and kill my knight. It was a valid plan. He killed 2 of the 3 hounds he needed to, but when firing his whirlwind to take out the last hound he scattered 12 inches back onto his unit, and hit himself with 4 S8 AP3 small blasts that negate cover!!! He ended up killing 4 of his own death company, a sanguinary priest, and a librarian! It was devastating. He declared the charge against my knight, and made it, but was bottlenecked in such a way that only 1 Ironpriest could swing. My knight survived, and the D-thirsters came in hit the star, and I bubble wrapped it so he could not hit and run. It took 3 more turns, but eventually the Knight and the Double D wiped out the star, while the flesh hounds cleaned up the rest of the board. 22-0 for KDK.
MVP: KDk Knight. This guy’s biggest advantage here was holding the star for the D-thirsters. He did lots of damage with D and Stomp, but staying alive was crucial.
Most memorable moment: the 12 inch whirlwind scatter!
Round 3.
In the final game of the way I squared off against, yes, another Deathstar! But a very different one. It was a GK/White scars army with a unit of 4 grav-centurions with Draigo, Tigurius, 4 librarians, and a white scars chapter master with hunters eye. He also has 5 scouts, 5 GK strike marines, and 2 dreadknights. The mission was emperor’s will and tactical objectives. During his power generation phase he got the power that allows the psyker and his unit to ignore line of sight. I was not worried about this matchup until he got that power. The table had plenty of terrain, but suddenly none of it mattered. I was able to win the roll to go first and played very defensively. I spread out flesh hounds onto objectives, deployed my knight far away from any crucial objectives and put my bloodthirsters in opposite corners and flew them both turn 1. Without using gate of infinity, he had no good targets for his Deathstar, except to shoot a flying bloodthirster, which he did, but only managed to do 3 wounds.
And to my advantage, he was grounded! I used the grounded bloodthirster to kill his strike squad, knowing the star and the dreadknights would kill me before I could swing, and I spread out the flesh hounds as much as I could to score tactical objectives, and advanced the other flying bloodthirster and the knight toward his star. My opponent quickly abandoned trying to beat me on tactical objectives, but was able to advance the dreadknights and use his star to kill 1 D-thirster and badly wound another. It all came down to a critical turn 3, where my opponent sent everything he had at the knight. He shunted the dreadknights to the side, and used the star to shoot the front. He failed banishment, twice, and due to good saves on my part my knight took 4 hull points, but was still alive. I was then able to charge the knight at one dreadknight, and a used a unit of summoned bloodcrushers to challenge the dreadknight and keep him from swinging on the knight. However, the knight whiffed!
The dreadknight lived and then my opponent was able to bring in both dreadknghts into the combat. 1 had to keep fighting the challenge but 1 could swing at the knight. My knight’s D attacks whiffed again, but amazingly, the dreadknight did too! I then rolled for stomp and got 3. With my 3rd roll I got the dreaded 6 result and stomped out both dreadknights! I was then able to consolidate, and charge his star with my knight and 2 units of hounds. The knight ended up dying, But he killed 4 centurions and a librarian in the process and the dogs kept the star locked down long enough for me to hold both emperor’s will objectives with some other units. It was super close, but it all fell apart for my opponent at the end. KDK got it 24-0
MVP: KDK Knight!
Source: Goatboy
Most memorable moment: The KDK Knight surviving the battle with the dreadknights and stomping them both out. The whole game came down to this combat. If my knight had died, and he had had 2 full strength dreadknight In my backfield, it would have been very bad for KDK.
And so, I was able to win the event! KDK powered through and beat and all psyker list and 2 Deathstars. I was very impressed with the KDK Knight. He did an incredible amount of work in every game. He becomes more of a liability against Eldar and Tau, but he is PERFECT for taking on Deathstars! It was a great day of playing with KDK and I look forward to the next one.
About the Author: Horton Doughton
