Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Atlanta Tournament Series Round 2! This was a great event that saw 34 players duke it out!
The rules were simple, 1850 points in 3 rounds of 2.5 hours each. I took the following list:
Rehati War Sect
Magnus
Tzeentch Daemon Prince, Wings, Armor, Level 3, Spell Familiar
Tzeentch Daemon Prince, Wings, Armor, Level 3, Spell Familiar
Tzeentch Daemon Prince, Wings, Armor, Level 3, Spell Familiar, Staff of Arcane Compulsion
Chaos Daemon Combined Arms Detachment
Herald of Tzeentch, Level 2, Paradox
13 Blue Horrors
10 Brimstone Horrors
Aegis Defense Line, Comms Relay
Going into this tournament I was very excited to see how this list would do with the new missions that the Warzone: Atlanta crew had cooked up. Also, I saw that after the Scarab GT I needed to find ways to make this army more fun to play against, so I decided that I would give out candy whenever one of my models was destroyed. The breakdown was as follows:
Lesser Daemons: 1 Skittle per daemon destroyed
Daemon Princes: 1 Snickers bar per Daemon Prince Destroyed
Magnus The Red: 1 Reese’s Cup per wound lost.
With a cart full of multi-colored daemons and candy I rolled into Giga-bytes Café ready to play!
The Warzone Format: Tournaments in the Atlanta area are different than many other formats. Their missions are unique, and the only restrictions for army construction are that Superheavy and Gargantuan Lords of War are 0-1 and that all armies must be battle-forged. Other than that, you can bring whatever you like. This makes the competitive scene in Atlanta VERY diverse, and this tournament was no exception. In this particular event there was a Tau’nar, a Reaver Titan, 30k Mechanicus, 2 Magnus armies, and much, much more!
Round 1 vs Brian
Army: Brian had a really cool army that consisted of a Drone Network, a Riptide Wing with Skyfire and Interceptor, and a Baronial Court with 3 knights. There were things in this army that really worried me and I knew this was a list to watch out for!
Mission: This mission was a newly created mission that the WZA team was trying out. There were 6 objectives, each one in the center of each 2×2 section of the board. The first person to control an objective got 2 points, but the second person to control the same objective got 3 points instead. So, if you rushed out and got all the objectives early, then you had better hold onto them or your opponent could mount an epic comeback! The secondary mission was simply get 1 VP for each enemy unit destroyed, to a max of 9. The Tertiary objectives were Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker. The deployment was Hammer and Anvil.
In this game I went to my standard tactics for powers, with each prince taking 1 roll on Tzeentch, and then just choosing Shriek and Summoning.
Brian won the roll to go fist and decided to deploy first and go first (in the WZA format, the person who deploys first MUST go first). I deployed as far away as possible with my whole army and held on! Fortunately, due to a little bit of good terrain and the deployment type, Brian was out of range with most of his army in turn 1, and could only get line of sight on Magnus and the Horrors. He advanced with everything and took a few long ranged shots and did 1 wound to Magnus.
In my turn 1 I was out of range with most of my army, so I flew my princes and Magnus to the board edge and my horrors stayed put behind their aegis line. I did not want to risk falling out of the sky with my princes, so I summoned a unit of horrors using the Paradox Herald, and just 1 more using 1 Daemon Prince. I used these models to form a wall in front of my blue horrors and herald. Magnus then made a chariot, cast a blessing, and threw a single D-shot toward a knight, but alas, he rolled a 1. In my shooting phase I ran Magnus and the princes off the board, and then ran the horrors and flatted out the chariot into better position.
Brian claimed several objectives, earning him the lead in points, and he advanced toward me. He took some shots at the different horror units and killed nearly 20. The blue horrors created from that split joined the Blue unit from the CAD.
My turn 2 was quite nerve-wracking. He had his riptides and drone net all in range of the table edge and I knew he had the firepower to drop some daemon princes and even Magnus! So, I came in very cautiously, with Magnus arriving in a far corner, only in range of 1 unit of drones, and my princes flew in away from Magnus, very shallow, and hid behind some terrain. My few remaining pink horrors advanced and tried to get in the way of the knights, and my chariot moved up from behind terrain to get a good shot at his drones. When it came time to intercept, Brian could only get a good shot on Magnus with 1 riptide and 1 drone unit, but he took it! However, thanks to his blessing still being active from last turn, he only took 1 wound. My Princes were too far away to do anything offensive, and were outside of their Magnus bubble, so I summoned 2 units of Plaguebearers onto a nearby power chip to hold it, and also threaten the knights if need be. Magnus blessed himself again, made a chariot and took another shot with the dirty D, but alas, he rolled a 1 again. At this point I had managed to avoid a lot of my opponent’s guns on my big guys, but had not yet done any damage. In the shooting phase my chariot picked off a drone, and the newly created chariot flatted out to get in front of a knight.
Brian’s turn 3 saw the Knights crash into the remaining pink horrors, and his riptides unloaded on the plague bearers, killing 19 of the 20 I summoned. He also tried to take out a daemon prince in the air, but I passed my saves! He also managed to put 2 hull points on 1 chariot, and kill another, as well as wipe out my remaining pink horrors and kill a few blues.
Turn 3 was a crucial one! With the knights out of combat and the princes near the riptides I had to start killing stuff this turn or I would be in trouble! The unit of blues that was created when the pink horrors were finished off moved up next to the Knights, and my Daemon princes flew up next to the drones and riptides, killing a few drones with vector strikes. I unleashed 3 psychic shrieks on the drones, but did 0 wounds, rolling a 5 on 3D6 each time! In desperation I cast the Tzeentch Primaris shooting power 3 times and managed to kill 1 unit of drones. Magnus then made up for the Daemon princes weaknesses, using flickering fire to take out more drones, making a chariot, turning a riptide into a spawn, and unleashing The Gaze of Magnus onto 2 Imperial Knights, killing 1 instantly and doing 2 hull points to another! In shooting my chariots took out the remaining drones, and a massive unit of blue horrors charged a knight to lock it down, and though they took tremendous casualties, they kept it locked.
Brian had taken some serious damage and tried to recover, but without drone support his riptides did not do much damage. He took out a chariot and shot at some princes but other than that did very little. His Knight finished off the blue horrors, but was now standing next to a massive unit of Brimstones! His other knight stayed on an objective to keep me from claiming it.
In my turn 4 my princes came to the ground, killed a riptide and took another down to 1 wound, killed his last unit of drones that was holding an objective in his deployment zone, and the combined power of Magnus and more chariot shooting took out another knight.
Brian fought on in turn 5, but there was not much more he could do. He killed a chariot and a Plaguebearer and his knight tried to fight through a massive unit of Brimstones. When my turn 5 rolled around, I landed on every objective and killed his riptide. Brian decided we should call the game there, but I reminded him that if we played out the Knight combat then he could earn more Skittles! So we kept rolling and the game went on, and Brian was able to wipe out the Brimstones, earning even more Skittles. But then the game actually did end, and we tallied the score. It was a good game, but Magnus and friends had come out on top. But in an impressive display Brian earned 80 Skittles and 2 Reese’s Cups!
31/33 Battle Points
Though I won big in this game, a different deployment type, or improper movement on my turn 2 could have easily swung it on Brian’s favor.
Round 2 vs Collin
Army: Collin is an excellent Tau player from Atlanta and he had a powerful list, with an Optimized Stealth Cadre, and a Tau CAD with Kroot, broadsides, a riptide, an ethereal and a Tau’nar Supremacy Suit!
Mission: This was a Kill Point mission, with the units in detachments outside of your primary detachment yielding double kill points. For the secondary there were six objectives, numbered 1-6, and you got points for controlling either even or odd numbered chips. You had to decide before the game whether you intended to control the chips at the end of the game or throughout the game. Tertiaries were standard, and the deployment was Dawn of War.
With a kill point primary mission each one of my princes took 1 roll on Tzeentch and then took Warpshock and Shriek. I needed offense in this game, and those 2 Primaris powers are a great way to get it. To my surprise and Collin’s horror, 2 of my princes rolled Treason of Tzeentch! So with Magnus as well, I could potentially cast this power 3 times a turn! With a unit of 3 Ghostkeels and a Tau’nar in his army, Collin was not happy about this.
Collin won the roll to go first and deployed his Broadsides, ethereal, riptide, and Ghostkeels. He opted to infiltrate his Kroot and stealth teams and board edge reserve his Tau’nar. (He was terrified of the seize and triple treason possibility!)
I deployed my horrors back behind the aegis wall, and kept my Princes in reserve. However, with most of his shooting being short ranged, and the Tau’nar off the board, I deployed Magnus about 40 inches away from my horrors, and far enough back to not get shot by the Ghostkeels. I knew he didn’t have the fire to Kill Magnus, but I wanted Magnus on the board to threaten things turn 1.
Collin then infiltrated one Kroot unit onto an objective, and the other Kroot unit and 2 stealth teams as close as possible to my horrors as he could. I opted not to seize.
In Collin’s turn 1 he moved his Kroot and stealth teams directly toward the horrors, and did the same with the broadsides, hoping to get the smart missiles in range for later turns. In shooting he ran his Kroot and stealth teams forward, and his broadsides as well. His riptide did a wound to Magnus, and in assault, his stealth teams assault jumped toward my horrors.
In my turn 1, I re-positioned by blue horrors a bit, and screened with Brimstones. Magnus flew up to help out the horrors, blessed himself, and used flickering fire to take out a stealth team, and a beam to kill a few Kroot. My paradox herald used paradox to unleash another level 3 flickering fire on the other stealth team, killing only 2, but they failed their morale check.
In turn 2, Collin scored a progressive point, his lone suit rallied, and his Tau’nar arrived from reserves and came onto the board as far from Magnus as possible. He moved up his Kroot toward the brimstone screen, and moved up his broadsides again. In shooting, the Ghostkeels and Riptide shot and wounded Magnus, and using the run and shoot ability of the ethereal, the broadsides plus the Taunar’s barrage weapon were able to kill about 6 blue horrors and a few Brimstones. Magnus was also grounded! Collin then jumped his Ghostkeels away to avoid an assault. His Kroot came crashing into the brimstones, but thanks to Magnus being nearby, one died on the way in, and thanks to split, the Brimstones were now even bigger. The Brimstones ended up killing 3 Kroot, but I lost the combat by 1, and suffered an additional wound due to instability. The Kroot, however, then failed their Warpflame test and lost another model!
In my turn 2, thanks to my comms relay, my princes all arrived. They, along with Magnus flew up the table and focused on killing Collin’s broadsides and ethereal, as well as killing the single stealth suit with a vector strike. It took 3 shrieks, 3 Warpshocks, 2 beams, and 2 Treasons of Tzeentch to do it, but I managed to take out all 4 broadsides and the ethereal. In combat with the Kroot, the combat was tied, with the Kroot losing 2 more models, and 1 more to failed Warpflame.
At this point, Collin knew he was in trouble, but he stayed positive and fought on. He tried to shoot down a prince in the sky, but thanks to activating his force weapon the previous turn the Prince avoided taking damage. The Tau’nar shot the blues and killed a handful, but the herald survived. In combat, the brims continued to wear down the Kroot, killing a few models and drawing combat again.
In my turn 3 things went really downhill for the Tau. I flew up right next to his Ghostkeels, and within 24 inches of the Taunar. I then unleashed 3 shrieks and 3 Warpshocks on the Ghostkeels, and then used treason of Tzeentch on the Taunar twice, unloading all weapons into the Ghostkeels. This wiped them out. Magnus tried a D-shot at the riptide, but Collin passed his invulnerable save. Brimstones kept taking out Kroot.
In turn 4 Collin did what he could, and fired a riptide at a prince, dealing a few wounds, but he stayed in the air, and shot the Taunar’s barrage weapon at an exposed herald but a he survived.
In my turn 4, I flew into better position to land on end game chips and also attack the riptide and use treason of Tzeentch on the Taunar. The wounded prince flew off. My blue horrors also got ready to charge the Kroot. In the Psychic phase, 2 good shrieks wiped out the riptide, and one more Treason of Tzeentch saw the Taunar kill Collin’s other Kroot unit. With nothing better to do, I took a D-shot at the Tau’nar with Magnus, and rolled a 6! My next roll was a 1 however, and the Tau’nar took a total of 4 wounds thanks to its shield. In assault the herald and blues killed the Kroot.
In turn 5 Collin was staying positive and trying to get as many points as he could with the progressive objective, and to kill my herald to get some kill points. He fired the Tau’nar’s barrage at the herald one more time, but it scattered off the board.
In my 5 I landed some princes on objectives, and moved the Brimstones onto one as well. Magnus stayed flying, cast force, and took 2 D-shots at the Tau’nar, doing 2 more wounds. At this point I had 3 princes on the ground, so if the game kept going, Collin could get some more kill points easily. But at the same time, if the game kept going Magnus was probably going to take out the Tau’nar. We rolled it and it ended. It was a rough game for the Tau, earning 0 kill points, but Collin stayed positive the whole time and was a great opponent. He earned 18 Skittles.
28/33 Battle points.
Collin’s list is a very good Tau list, but it lacked Skyfire and interceptor. In addition, in this match up the Tau’nar was completely incapable of dealing meaningful damage to my army, only killing about 50 points of models all game. Also, with 3 Treasons of Tzeentch on the board, Collin’s own army was his worst enemy. Collin is a friend of mine and we had discussed what this match up might look like, but even we were surprised. Magnus is a gigantic counter to the Tau’nar. Even so, If Collin had started the Tau’nar on the board, it would have forced Magnus to go into reserves, and would have helped out in this match up. However I believe it is still a very tough game for the Tau.
Round 3 vs Mike
When they announced pairings for round 3 I was matched up against my fellow Borderlands Gaming teammate, the one and only Mike Twitchell! We had hoped we would not have to play since we had traveled to the event together, but since we both were doing so well it could not be helped! I knew it would be a great one!
Army: Mike was playing an extremely potent Raven Guard list with Eldar allies that allowed him to bring in 8 Flyers on turn 1! With Death from the Skies in play at this event, he had the means to negate cover and wipe me out turn 1!
Mission This game was a mix of the Relic and Kill Points. Primary was the Relic, and Secondary was kill points, with each kill point earned worth 1 VP, to a max of 6, and the first person to 6 got 2 bonus points. In addition, the person with the most kill points at the end of the game got 1 extra point. Tertiaries were standard, and the deployment was Vanguard Strike.
We rolled for table sides, and Mike won, forcing me to take a section of the board with no line of sight-blocking terrain. We then rolled for first turn, and due to his Raven Guard abilities he won this roll as well, opting to take first turn.
At this point, I thought the game was over. If I started anything on the table, he had the firepower to kill it, and if he killed everything turn 1 then I would auto lose! Mike and I had discussed this doom scenario many times before, but now, here it was! I considered deploying everything and placing all my bets on a seize the initiative roll, but ultimately decided to reserve Magnus and the princes, and to deploy the horrors behind the Aegis line and just hold on! I tried to seize the initiative but failed.
In Mike’s turn 1, he got all his flyers in from reserve! He brought his two storm wings up in the negate cover pattern, and had 2 storm talons fly into a corner in order to fly on top of the relic the next turn. He did not bring all of the flyers because only the wings of 3 could negate cover. He flew right up next to my horrors in the negate cover pattern and unloaded! My horrors melted before his punishing guns, but when the smoke cleared I still had 4 brimstones left! This is including those created from Split, so Mike killed 32 horrors and a herald!
In my turn 1 I moved and ran these remaining (and badly out of position) models toward the comms relay.
In Twitch’s turn 2 he flew 1 Stormtalon off the board to retain air superiority, he flew one on top of the relic, he flew one Stormwing off of the table due to its position, and the other Stormwing he flew as short a distance as possible to still be able to shoot the brimstones. We debated this, and Mike knew that this position would leave him vulnerable to a vector strike attack if my princes arrived, but he also knew that if he could kill the remaining brimstones then I could not use the comms relay, and he could potentially win the game right away. He decided to go for the kill! His shooting managed to kill the brimstones that were on the comms relay, but 2 survived! Due to positioning he could only get a few shots on them.
Mike had done all he could, but I had weathered the storm! Now was the moment of truth – I had to roll for reserves, on a 4+! Luck, however, was on my side, and I successfully brought in Magnus and 2 princes, both of which had summoning, 1 had Warpshock, and one had Empyric Shield. I brought all 3 FMCs on over Mike’s flyers, and with Vector strikes I was able to kill one Stormtalon, and put a hull point onto another.
Then, with a warpshock from a prince, and a flickering fire from Magnus, I was able to kill the damaged Stormtalon, and kill the other Stormtalon that was on top of the relic! I then had just enough dice to summon a unit of pink horrors, and cast empiric shield on a prince. The horrors scattered off the relic, but made it to the board and got within 3 inches of the relic after a run. Magnus then ran in the shooting phase to get on top of the relic. Wow, what a turn! It could not have gone better than that.
In Mike’s turn 3 his other flyers came back on, some jetbikes arrived, and his out of position Stormraven repositioned to set up a charge later. He took a few shots at a daemon prince, doing a wound, and shot up the summoned horrors, killing 6 of them. He could have killed more, but was avoiding vector strikes.
In my 3, my last prince stayed off, Magnus flew up toward Mike’s board edge, and my princes summoned 20 pink horrors around the relic. At that point, Mike saw that the relic was now almost impossible to recover. One of the princes cast empiric shield, and he stayed close to the relic. Magnus summoned a chariot to shoot a few models, and he and 1 other prince flew off of the board.
In Mike’s turn 4, his only targets were a 2++reroll daemon prince (due to empiric shield and 1k sons benefit) and a bunch of horrors. So, he unloaded on the horrors, killing 90% of them and creating a massive unit of blues. He had also landed a Stormraven and got out 5 marines and a chaplain to charge in and make a long shot play on the relic. They charged a unit of 40 blue horrors, taking no damage in return, but the blues held.
In my 4, all my prince and Magnus came on, but even with vector strikes and shooting, I only killed 1 flyer! I also managed to summon more horrors onto the relic. I also landed my empiric shield prince to guard the relic.
In turn 5 Mike landed another Stormraven, and disembarked to assault a massive unit of brimstones protecting the relic. He shot and killed dozens more horrors, but failed his charge thanks to Magnus. He did manage to charge an attack bike into the blue horror combat. In combat his chaplains squad killed more blues.
In my 5 Magnus and friends picked off more flyers and infantry, and the Empiric Shield prince picked up the relic.
It went to 6 and in Mike’s turn he shot and killed more horrors, and in mine I killed more Eldar infantry and flyers, and a unit of 20 brimstones multi-charged the Attack Bike and the Chaplain’s squad, making it one huge combat. Mike won the combat, and if both squads rolled double 6s, he would be free, and could consolidate toward the Prince to control the relic due to having Objective Secured. I rolled instability on the giant unit of blues, and rolled 6,6! I then rolled for the massive unit of Brimstones and rolled…6…3! They held! It came down to the very end, but Magnus and Friends carried the day. It was a close and intense game. Mike was a great opponent and I look forward to playing him again! He also won the award for most Skittles received, earning a staggering 140 Skittles! I was, however, able to get to 6 kill points first, and also ended the game with more kill points, as Mike had many small units I was able to pick off.
31/33 battle points
My game with Mike was very tactical. Mike and I are great friends and we regularly talk tactics but rarely ever play against each other in events. We talked it through and there were a few things that Mike could have done differently to make this a tougher game, but it is still not a good match up if Magnus and friends make it into the air. I did get lucky with Magnus and 2 princes arriving on turn 2, and even just 1 more failed reserve roll would totally change this game.
When the results were tallied I ended the day with the most battle points, winning the award for Best General. It was very close, though: A Nurgle Warband player, A non-Deathstar Space Wolves assault player, a War Convocation player, and a Craftworld Eldar player were all in the top mix, but this time Magnus carried the day. It was a great event with an incredibly diverse field. The Rehati War Sect continues to be the most flexible army I have ever seen in 40k. It packs a punch, plays extremely fast, and it an absolute blast to play. I love playing it and hope to play it as much as I can this year.
The WZA Atlanta crew runs spectacular events. At least 5 states were represented at this tournament and we all had a blast. If you are anywhere close to Atlanta (I am 6 hours away!) I highly recommend attending one of their events. You will not regret it!
Until next time,
Horton
