ATC has come and gone, and the KDK did their best to make an impression and score points. How did they do? Let’s look at it:
Game 1 vs Dark Angels Ravenwing:
This had the potential to be a tough game for me. Black Knights all have hit and run, and have good shooting. However, my opponent made a grievous error on turn 1. He advanced his whole army to within 9 inches of me (with scout and first turn) and shot me with his plasma talons. While this may seem like a good idea, this put him within striking distance of my entire army.
In my turn 1 nearly all my units made it into assault and when the smoke cleared there were not many DA left. We played out a few more turns, but the game was decided turn 1. In the end, I won 20-0
Game 2 vs Daemons with renegade Knights.
Game two saw me face off against the one and only Goatboy! We only see each other at big events so it was great to play against each other. He had a list that I myself had considered. He had a daemonic incursion with a murderhorde and fateweaver, and then he had 2 Gatling cannon renegade knights. Despite this I was not worried about this matchup at all. I believed that D-Thirsters and gorepack hounds gave me a distinct advantage. A lot can be said about this game, as it really was a great one, but it all came down to this: my hounds just simply could not kill his.
He will tell you, I set up counter charges where I would counter a unit of his hounds with 2 of mine, but somehow still lose the combat. It was nuts. I lost kill points and progressive, but managed to hang on to tie emperor’s will, earning 6 points in this round. It was a good game against a great friend but I just could not pull out the W. I will be ready next time!!!
Game 3 vs the Bark-Bark Star
My opponent in this round was a nice guy, but I have to say, his list was one of my least favorite of all time. He had the infamous Bark-Bark Star, a unit created when multiple packs of Fenrisian wolves combine into one unit thanks to their formation, and then you throw in Azrael, a chaplain, and some librarians, for an insane amount of buffs on a 60-75 model unit. I was not worried going into the game, as I thought the KDK knight would be a big counter, but my opponent managed to roll both hammerhand, and misfortune, which meant the Knight was in trouble. He also got veil of time AND sanctuary, so the unit was essentially immortal. This game was not very exciting and came down to one tactic that I used repeatedly.
This particular star did not have Hit and Run. So, I hit the star a few units at a time every turn on a different flank, and since it was SOOO big, he could not bring his whole unit to bear and some of my stuff managed to stay alive. I killed a handful of wolves, but that was only due to stomps from the knight and the explosion when he died to massed wolf attacks. Eventually I ran out of units to lock the star down, but I managed to narrowly pull out the W by earning 11 points. Bark-Bark is brutal. If you have the chance, don’t play it. It is the meanest deathstar I have ever seen.
Game 4 Vs Inquisitorial Thunderstar
This round was the start of Day 2 and I was ready to play. I got to face a non-psychic thunderstar with Azrael, a chaplain and an inquisitor attached. Initially I was not worried, but then I realized that the inquisitor had both Rad and Psycotrope grenades. To make a long story short, he came at me and got into a position where I could hit him with both D-Thirsters and the Knight, as well as lock down key characters with hounds to keep them from attacking my big stuff.
Unfortunately for me, I made some errors setting it up, and to make matters worse, with 25 Strength D attacks plus Stomp, I only managed to kill 3 models, and then lost ALL of mine. It was the most disappointed I have been by an in-game event in years. Needless to say, after that my opponent killed everything he needed to and got max points, and I got 0. Mistakes were made in this game, and if I ever play it again I know what to do next time, and that is the main thing.
Game 5 vs Eldar Seer Council plus Crimson Death
I was lucky enough in round 5 to play against Adam Abramowicz, an excellent painter, member of the Forge the Narrative Podcast and a super nice guy. We had met before at some local events in SC a few years ago, but had never played. Initially, I was not worried about this list. Yes, he had lots of scatter bikes and a sword Wraithknight, but I felt that the D-Thirsters and the Knight could counter these units well and also neutralize the seer council.
The KDK rush was working just fine until the fatigue of Day 2 caught up to me and I made a critical error: I forgot wraightknights are Jump Monstrous creatures! I thought I had walled off his wraithknight from reaching my Knight, but Adam simply jumped over my Hound-screen and assaulted my KDK Knight, killing it with one swing of the sword! During the very same game turn his crimson death arrived and shot a full health D-thirster out of the sky, and suddenly I was down 705 points! I thought I might be looking at another loss, but the KDK rallied. The remaining MSU of my army was able to lock down his seer council and jetbike units and the last D-thirster made it into the seer council. I would eventually lose all the hounds and the D-thirster in the seer council combat after the wraithknight came to help, but my warlord D-thirster was a true boss! He killed 2 farseers, a handful of warlocks and even the wraithknight!
This allowed me to squeak out a win on kill points, and on objectives thanks to some blood point summoning and his flyers just not being able to put out enough shots to kill my troops. It was an 11-9 victory for me, and the closest game of the ATC for me. Adam was a great opponent and I can’t wait to play him again.
Game 6 Vs White Scars Battle Company:
Going into the final game of ATC I found myself up against a full battle company of White Scars. This was an interesting game, and one where fatigue was a huge factor. There were a lot of back and forth moments in this game, but some of the biggest happened in the first two turns. I totally forgot Khan gives scout to rhinos and a scouting dev squad moved up and blew away a D-thirster turn 1. I also did not properly protect my Knight, and a drop pod with 5 melta guns was able to drop down and kill the knight in one volley.
Those two errors dramatically affected this game. Also, my opponent was smart and put a drop pod right over the center progressive chip, and for the life of me I just could not kill it. I managed to win kill points, but nothing else in this one. It was a tough one for the KDK but I learned some valuable lessons abought fighting a battle company and feel I will be more prepared next time.
Overall I went 3-3. I was not unhappy with this record, but I really believe I could have done better. Looking back at my games, I feel like the Knight, while very good, just does not fit my style of army and I would have been better off using those points differently. But even if the list stays the exact same, I made more tournament mistakes at ATC than I have in a while, and that is something I need to work on.
Hopefully next year I can get more prep games with my army, get more sleep and be more prepared the day of the event. ATC is a great event and I highly recommend that you attend of you can. I am already looking forward to next year!
Editor’s Note: What Horton won’t tell you is he was also getting ready for a move across the state, and also ran a big 30+ person 40k tournament in July as well. He’s a humble guy that Horton, and he still even drinks milk of all things. So you know he has a a good head on his shoulders.
