Event Recap: The Fargo Two Rivers Open GT

Last week, we previewed the Fargo Two Rivers Open GT, featuring three different Goonhammer authors – James “Boon” Kelling, Chase “Gunum” Garber, and Cyle “Naramyth” Thompson. This week, we’re looking back at their performances and taking stock of lessons learned.

If you missed our preview article last week, you can find it here.

The Two Rivers Open GT wrapped up Sunday with Warhog Nicolas Weiss piloting his new Imperium soup list to a 5-0 record and victory at the event. I’m not 100% familiar with the arcane rules and customs of the Warhogs gaming team, but I’m pretty sure that this win means that now Chase and Cyle have to call Nick “Daddy” when addressing him.

What’s amazing about Nick’s list is that it mixes a number of new army elements, and that he won with it against a field still using the pre-second FAQ Iron Hands rules.

Nicolas’ Imperium List

5-0, First Place

Astra Militarum Battalion (+5 CP, 723 points)
Regimental Doctrine: 133rd Lambdan Lions

Stratagem: Open the Reliquaries (-1 CP)

HQ: Tempestor Prime w/Refractor field generator, Tempestus Command Rod, Warlord: Keys to the Armoury
HQ: Tempestor Prime w/Tempestus Command Rod

Troops: Tempestus Scions x10 inc. 4 w/Plasma gun, Tempestor w/Chainsword, Plasma Pistol
Troops: Tempestus Scions x10 inc. 4 w/Plasma gun, Tempestor w/Chainsword, Plasma Pistol
Troops: Tempestus Scions x10 inc. 4 w/Plasma gun, Tempestor w/Chainsword, Plasma Pistol
Troops: Tempestus Scions x10 inc. 4 w/Plasma gun, Tempestor w/Chainsword, Plasma Pistol

Elites: Tempestus Command Squad x4 w/Meltagun
Elites: Tempestus Command Squad x4 w/Plasma gun

Adepta Sororitas Battalion (+5 CP, 876 Points)
Order Conviction: Valorous Heart

HQ: Canoness w/Bolt Pistol, Brazier of Holy Fire, Chainsword
HQ: Celestine

Troops: Battle Sisters x15 w/Bolter, Meltagun x2
Troops: Battle Sisters x10
Troops: Battle Sisters x10

Elites: Imagifier w/Heroine in the Making, Relic: Book of St. Lucius, Tale of the Stoic, WL Trait: Indomitable Belief

FA: Dominion Squad x5 w/3x Storm bolter, Meltagun
FA: Dominion Squad x5 w/3x Storm bolter, Meltagun

Grey Knights Supreme Command (+1 CP, 395 Points)

Stratagem: Armoury of Titan (-1 CP)

HQ: Brother-Captain w/Storm Bolter, Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Empyrean Domination
HQ: Brotherhood Champion w/Blade of the Forsworn, Inner Fire
HQ: Lord Kaldor Draigo w/Gate of Infinity, Hammerhand

++++++

Boon’s thoughts: Nick is a fantastic opponent who has shown a real knack for picking up a list he doesn’t have much experience with and just intuitively making it work – as I found out when I faced his Tau last summer. Moreover, he is a smart player who will absolutely punish any mistake you make. 

This list is a little different in its unique combination – there are the Grey Knight characters who obviously offer some durable, flexible punch as well as a capability to Gate a character to a needed location – but understated is a level of psychic defense that is unmatched by most lists outside of Thousand Sons. Then there’s the Sisters Battalion. Ignoring AP-1 and -2, and with the characters, benefiting from a 4++ and an inherent 6+++ makes them an extremely difficult-to-shift pile of infantry which slowly pushes their way up the field and shrinks the playing area, while also dishing out some deadly melta shots. Finally, you have the Tempestus Scions, a popular choice in the wake of their PA update. I think a lot of people look at this list and wonder at his choice of Regimental Doctrine, but I am here to tell you that his Scions won him the championship. 

First off, the additional AP on his plasma meant that none of my vehicles (or the Marines he built this list to counter) were getting a save on his Str 8, D2 shots. He still benefited from key re-rolls with character support, but most importantly, he was granted access to a relic that gave him a 5++ aura. It’s this latter part that proved crucial. Ultimately, Nick’s Scions hit like a brick to the dome, but if you can effectively screen you’ll minimize that impact before mopping up or fleeing from much of the threat. In most games his tough Battle Sister and GK character support makes fleeing not as much of an option and forces you to attempt to remove that Scions entirely, but with that 5++ on his 10-man units, Nick is effectively cutting his losses by a third and guaranteeing that his real threats – the plasma guns – remain alive long enough to keep doing damage and allow his Sisters and GK to mop up. It’s an extremely well -list. And frankly, I love it – and Nick plays it to a T.

With Nick’s list out of the way, let’s move on to our Goonhammer authors and how things went for them.

Chase “Gunum” Garber

Not content to run Dark Angels now that they’re good, Chase took Harlequins to the event, hoping to surprise and upset some players and end up going 4-1 or better. He had a great run on day 1, finishing 3-0 and in the points lead, but could he take his clown posse all the way?

Chase’s List

Harlequins Battalion (+5 CP, 707 Points)
Masque Form: The Frozen Stars: Hysterical Fury
Stratagems: Enigmas of the Black Library (2 Relics, -3 CP)

Final Result: 3-2, 8th Place

Overall Impressions

Hey everyone! Gunum here in my first kinda tournament report since Vegas. I could go into why it’s been so long, but what fun is that! Lets dive right into the event! The first thing you’ll notice here, is that I’ve brought Harlequins instead of my tempered Dark Angels. After not achieving my goal of first of the Dark Angels at LVO, I wanted to reach out into more of my collection. Next to my Dark Angels, my Harlequins and my Tyranids are my favorite armies to play.  With all the the extra -1 AP floating around in the game, I wanted an army that could stand up to those kinds of armies (Looking at you Marines) as well being able to engage their gooey center of characters.  

What Worked

The event went really well for my army overall. I played against Mech Orks, Nurgle Chaos, Tau, Eldar, and Imperium. I was in first place with nearly maxed points at the end of day one and had a much, much worse day 2, ending at 8th place. The things that really stood out for my list were my unit of 11 players and my Warlord and his accompanying boat.

What Didn’t

The real stand-out units that didn’t do nearly as much work were the OTHER two boats without the boss man. A 22-inch move is pretty great, but for the majority of my games I rolled up a hammer and anvil deployment and just couldn’t get my 6” meltas in the range needed to get the job done.

The thing that I really feel could have been adjusted was the Frozen Stars detachment as +1 attack, only on the charge, just didn’t carry as much weight as I wanted it too. Over the entire event there were only two different times I noticed it come into play, once against an Ork Battlewagon and once against Boons fully buffed Shining Spears. 55 attacks is nothing to shake a stick at, and I really wish there was a way to get re-roll hits outside of the Great Harlequin.

Feelings about new ITC missions

Going into the missions of the event and these new secondaries, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed them. Though, my list plays directly into a couple of auto takes. With the heavy hitting force I can put onto people on turn one, I take Old School. Honestly, this hubris really hurt me in my games vs Boon and Tyler Devris. I put so much stock into 6 haywire bikes being able to do a total of 12 wounds a vehicle, I couldn’t fathom it -not- happening which, of course, that’s exactly what happened. Next, the new Recon was by far one of my most useful tools. The mobility of my army was such that it was an almost undeniable secondary for me. My final choice was once again playing into my strengths of pure offense with Butcher’s Bill. I felt if I wasn’t killing two units a turn, I was playing my own army wrong. 

The Games

I had a couple of stand-out games that really felt like they could have gone either way to me. The first one of those was against Gerald Miller’s Possesed star round 2. That was the list that wanted to be RIGHT where I wanted it, that is with us up in each other’s faces. I ended up playing cagey with my big brick of Players, sacrificing all of my melta rides to bait out his possessed. Once they had all come over, he had left me an incredibly large hole (about 24mm wide) for my entire unit to pounce all over his character castle and kill 7 of them in one single combat phase. Harlequin’s Kisses are fantastic at slaying characters.   

The next stand-out game was against Boon. We played a very back-and-forth, cat-and-mouse game. But by the end of it, it was my killer clowns filling up his deployment zone with death and his tanks shooting my clowns out of it. I just couldn’t finish the job, and I give him huge props for playing very, very smart against me. Honestly, the biggest thing about my clowns was people just didn’t understand just quite how fast I am. How much ground I could cover. Boon did, as he had his own clowns at home and seeing the respect he was giving me by taking Hammer and Anvil and pushing his tanks to the very edge of safety, well it just really got me. 

Overall, playing my Clowns has been just a -wonderful- experience, giving me the opportunity to really stretch out my Big-Brain strats and I’m really excited to see what my next events brings me.

Cyle “Naramyth” Thompson

Once a proud man chasing the noble dream of “Best in Faction for AdMech,” Cyle recently went full heel turn, smashing his longtime friend and teammate Chase over the head with a steel folding chair before choke-slamming him through the Spanish announcers’ table and switching to Iron Hands, winning the Wheat City Open last month. With one more event before his wanton bullshit fades into the mists of metas past, we were all kind of rooting for Cyle to get at best like, 4th.

Cyle’s List

Iron Hands Successor Brigade (+12 CP, 2,000 Points)
Chapter Traits: Master Artisans, Stealthy

HQ: Captain w/Jump Pack, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer
HQ: Primaris Lieutenant w/Power sword
HQ: Techmarine w/Chainsword

Troops: Intercessors x5 w/Stalker Bolt Rifles, Aux Launcher
Troops: Intercessors x5 w/Stalker Bolt Rifles, Aux Launcher
Troops: Intercessors x5 w/Stalker Bolt Rifles, Aux Launcher
Troops: Intercessors x5 w/Stalker Bolt Rifles
Troops: Intercessors x5 w/Stalker Bolt Rifles
Troops: Scouts x5 w/Boltgun

EL: Dreadnought w/Twin Lascannon, CCW, Storm Bolter
EL: Primaris Apothecary w/Stratagem: Chief Apothecary (-1 CP), Warlord: Father of the Future
EL: Relic Contemptor Dreadnought w/Cyclone Missile Launcher, Dreadnought CCW, Storm Bolter, Twin Lascannon

FA: Suppressors x3
FA: Suppressors x3
FA: Suppressors x3

HS: Devastators x5 w/4x Grav-Cannon and Grav-Amp
HS: Eliminators x3 w/Bolt Sniper Rifle
HS: Eliminators x3 w/Bolt Sniper Rifle
HS: Eliminators x3 w/Bolt Sniper Rifle
HS: Thunderfire Cannon

DT: Terrax-Pattern Termite Assault Drill w/Twin Volkite Chargers

Final Result: 4-1, 4th Place

Overall Impressions

The event went swimmingly!  There were no delays and judging was smooth. We had food provided both days so we didn’t have to head off site and having a full bar made the long breaks between rounds go quickly. The terrain was basically NOVA style, including 2” thick L blockers. I got to play the bad guy list one more time and with the exception of my match-up against Nick Weiss, the eventual winner, I truly felt like the bad guy. I thoroughly crushed 3 out of my 5 opponents, and against two of them I went first and had a crippling start. Mark’s double paladin bomb had a great opening two turns against me and really had me sweating, but his dice went cold when my grav came down and after all my shooting and combats, all the paladins were dead.

What worked

The amount of sustained useful shooting this list can put out is nutty, and it has a counter charge that can really put people to bed. In addition, having the deep strike capability and Eliminators to grab positional secondaries really allowed me to play cagey. My Contemptor could freely walk up the table and if he got charged the counter punch was rough while the Suppressors would go into annoying places and plink away while grabbing Recon. Having the single Iron Hands “Counterspell” Stratagem kept the Grey Knights honest. The Apothecary was a nice add. Bringing back Eliminators and messing up 2 damage math with his 6+++ was choice.

What didn’t

I got smoked by Nick’s Sisters/Scions/GK list. That many 4++/6+++ bodies are very hard to chew through and Scions coming down in bricks of 10 means that shooting them back (through the 5++ aura) means you generally don’t clear the special weapons without volume of fire, which this list certainly lacks. I’m iffy on the Eliminators, they did do damage (and really made my ork matchup a blow out) but they really dropped the ball against Nick. Finally the smash captain might be just a lot of points for another hammer standing around in this list. The mobility is nice but the more I play the infantry pile the more he’s just a counter charge threat and not something that jumps out and does some business.

Lessons learned

Don’t let your teammates calibrate a “here is how to stop Cyle’s army, exactly” list although I suppose it’s fine because Nick got through everyone else too. This list is dead as it sits: Suppressors now only work as Ultras, a grav drop is hard to manage unless you are Raven Guard or Ultras with a captain, stalker rifles are done, and even the Thunderfire is questionable. However, hordes may be back, and volume of fire is needed. Expect more Aggressors, Centurions, and other high-volume shooting.

Feelings about new ITC missions

I love the new secondaries and map choice options. Forcing both a positional and killing secondary is cool and allowing the defender a choice or re-roll on maps is a good space to be in. However, I played a loooot of Hammer and Anvil (thinking back on it, 4/5 games were Hammer and Anvil or Pointy Hammer, and I picked Vanguard over Hammer game one, but it was a mistake. It should have been 5/5) because everyone going second wants to hide in their terrain and have a deep board. It’s a little thing but I’m guessing we will probably have significantly less deployment map diversity going forward.

No seize continues to be a nightmare and lets people just setup without getting punished. Full setups with secondary mission picking after you know who is the Attacker and what the deployment map is without a chance to be punished is wild. I just put my Suppressors on the table against Orks and picked Engineers instead of Recon because I knew I could just…be out there and didn’t need to get aggressive with my movement. At the top tables sure, a good player with a list designed for the environment will figure it out and probably do better going second. But man, does it make the mid tables feel real bad.

Also, if I can’t seize on Boon what am I even doing in this game. #bringbackseize

James “Boon” Kelling

After months of tweaking and tinkering his list for LVO, James ended up playing against a string of Marine armies that nearly broke his will to keep playing. However with the new meta peeking over the horizon, he arrived at the Two Rivers GT with a twinkle in his eye and a spring in his step.

James’ List

Custom Craftworlds Battalion (+5 CP, 809 Points)
Craftworld Attributes: Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots

HQ: Farseer Skyrunner w/Witchblade, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Pistol
HQ: Spiritseer w/Shuriken Pistol, Relic: Faolchu’s Wing, Warlord: Seer of the Shifting Vector

Troops: Dire Avengers x5 w/Avenger Shuriken Catapult, Exarch w/2x Catapults, Avenging Strikes
Troops: Dire Avengers x5 w/Avenger Shuriken Catapult, Exarch w/2x Catapults, Avenging Strikes
Troops: Dire Avengers x5 w/Avenger Shuriken Catapult, Exarch w/2x Catapults, Avenging Strikes

FA: Shining Spears x8 w/Laser Lance, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Exarch w/Star Lance, Swooping Dive
FA: Shining Spears x7 w/Laser Lance, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Exarch w/Star Lance, Skilled Rider

Custom Craftworld Spearhead (+1 CP, 769 Points)
Craftworld Attributes: Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots

HQ: Yvraine

FA: Hornet w/Crystal Targeting Matrix, 2x Hornet Pulse Laser
FA: Hornet w/Crystal Targeting Matrix, 2x Hornet Pulse Laser

HS: Night Spinner w/Crystal Targeting Matrix, Twin Shuriken Catapult
HS: Night Spinner w/Crystal Targeting Matrix, Twin Shuriken Catapult
HS: Support Weapons w/Vibrocannon x3
HS: Support Weapons w/Vibrocannon x3

Custom Craftworld Spearhead (+1 CP, 769 Points)
Craftworld Attributes: Expert Crafters, Masterful Shots

HQ: Warlock Skyrunner w/Witchblade, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Shuriken Pistol

HS: Falcon w/crystal Targeting Matrix, Starcannon, Twin Shuriken Catapult
HS: Falcon w/crystal Targeting Matrix, Starcannon, Twin Shuriken Catapult
HS: Falcon w/crystal Targeting Matrix, Starcannon, Twin Shuriken Catapult

Final Result: 4-1, 2nd Place

Overall Impressions

This would have been my first GT win and while it was so, so close, I ended up falling just shy in what was a thrilling 28-31 finale against the champ, Nick Weiss. I did, however, meet my goal of 4-1 and landed a real cool 2nd place finish so overall I left the event feeling great. In total, I faced a trio of Warhogs running Chaos (Daemons/Knights), Harlequins, & Imperium (Sisters/Guard/Grey Knights), then a couple of Space Wolf players who were packing a punch.

What Worked/Didn’t

Prior to the event I had mentioned that I had dropped the three Fire Prisms for a second Spears squad and, perhaps as a big-brain moment, took some Hornets that I wasn’t really completely sure about but thought it fit the army well and met my needs. With hindsight, this was definitely the correct decision. The Hornets performed exactly as I thought they would, putting out plenty of high-strength, high-AP, D2 shots that were stripping wounds and dropping models from ranges that prevented any serious return. Essentially, given their range, movement, and the other threats in the list, I lost the Hornets only when I made a mistake (the final game). At no point in any of my games did I feel like I was missing the Fire Prism’s reliable output and I definitely enjoyed the 1-3 CP I would have used on Linked Fire in alternative situations. 

Lessons Learned

That begs the question, what would I change and… I don’t think I’d change anything. The list is so efficient at the moment, with so much redundancy, speed, and flexibility that it’s frankly hard to pick out a unit that performed consistently below OR above average. If I was pressed and had to make a call? Honestly, probably Yvraine. She’s such a utility HQ, her capability to drop mortal wounds and help out in combat in a pinch is excellent. But frankly she’s slow for the list and I often found that I had her out of position. Realistically, this is more of an issue of how I’m using her and I think I need to give her more thought in placement – but that’s all I can really say about it. 

Feelings about new ITC missions

That brings me to the new ITC missions. I frankly love the way they play now. I didn’t realize until this weekend just how much impact perfect knowledge of the opponent’s placement or turn order has on units with good range and mobility. Essentially, Attacker/Defender dynamic makes it so that you can always place your units at their optimal range regardless of whether you’re going first or second. For a list like mine that combines long range and/or fast platforms it means I can always play aggressive on the offense while playing conservative on the defense and not lose any effectiveness. Regarding the secondaries, they weren’t exactly a given as I thought they might be, and they did create a lot of interesting dynamics in both how my army plays as well as how my opponents pick against it. However, I did note an uptick in my average game score, and I think the easier bonus really plays into that. I think I need to get more games in competitively to really assess, but I’m having fun and it feels fresh.

The Games

My opponents were all fantastic and I had a ton of fun at the event. I’ll highlight the general flow of the game, but won’t do a turn by turn breakdown:

My round one opponent, Luke Boucher, was running a trio of Chaos Knights, a Helverin, and then some daemons in support. He won the attacker roll and I put him on a Hammer and Anvil deployment. Unfortunately for him, this meant that I could counter-deploy him perfectly – hiding what I could, and then Cloudstriking five of my seven tanks. This left him without a targetable unit on T1, he shot some missiles out of LoS ineffectually, and on my turn I pounced forward with my Spears – crushing a Knight and the Helverin, and forcing him to play deeply from behind. He cleared most of the Spears in response but on T2 my tanks came in – all with a Crystal Targeting Matrix. He couldn’t weather the full force and folded rapidly afterwards . 

My next opponent, Drew Ward, was running a force of mostly Wulfen, characters, and a triple set of Stormfangs each carrying some small bois. This time I won the roll for first and deployed aggressively, maximizing my coverage of the board. He deployed his gunships as far back as possible and deployed his Wulfen and characters all forward behind a Nova L. I Phantasm’d to reposition on the Stormfangs and Wulfen and then proceeded to clear one Gunship, cripple a second, and clear a squad of Wulfen in the opening salvo. Brutal. In all honesty, he took this well, responding the best he could by damaging a Falcon and destroying another, before losing the other two gunships and Wulfen squads in the my next turn, most of which came from an exploding gunship (with a reroll). It was a crushing win, but my opponent was such a champ about it that he earned my only ‘5’ Sportsmanship score. 

Game 3 was a Space Wolf rematch, but this was an altogether different game. Jon Kilcullen, down from the land of maple and poutine had brought with him a Librarian, 3x Jump Wolf Lords, a Jump Wolf Guard Battle Leader, 4x Impulsors, 20x Intercessors, 13x Blood Claws, 2x Invictors, and a Murderfang. I’ll be honest, I didn’t get it – then he explained what the Impulsors allowed him to do and I got real nervous. I put him on a Hammer and Anvil to maximize my distance and then he went first. I didn’t know if he was going to try to pop his Primaris out or hold back, and he chose the latter, which was frankly more alarming. I found myself with a rapidly approaching, very tough castle, shielding 4 smash captain equivalents and a literal boatload of Marines. Focusing on the Invictors I tried to keep him relatively contained and skirted the edges. This game was always going to be close, but I believe Jon made a critical mistake: As I slowly edged the exterior with my vehicles and spears, he shot out his smash captains and Impulsors and wrapped my cannons – punching with fists. His Warlord went and hammered my Warlock off an objective. However, with his big punchy threats neutralized and his characters all on my board edge, this allowed me to break out – my Spears launched out into his backfield with the second arriving via Deep Strike, and my vehicles jumped to midboard – not losing their effectiveness due to CTM. This essentially flipped the board and he simply wasn’t able to march back across under the weight of all the fire. Once his Impulsors were removed, cleaning up the troops and picking off the characters became a matter of mopping up. Still it was a great game, and afterwards we bought each other a beer. I’ll be very interested in what he’ll be able to do with his Wolves with the upcoming PA update under his belt.

Game 4 was against our very own Gunum and his nasty Harlequin list. I’m sick of typing right now so I’ll let him talk about it. Suffice to say, Chase plays his Harlequins brilliantly, and I’m just lucky to have played my own Harlequins enough to anticipate this game.

Game 5 was against the event champion, Nick Weiss. I wrote about his list above, and I’m not going to go too deep into this. This was a down to the wire match that resulted in a 28-31 loss – we discussed a bit about what could have been done differently but it was such a tight game it’s hard to truly say – as I noted above, I made a mistake with one of my Hornets – in attempting to move my Vibros to push back his Scions and shield my vehicles, I forgot to bring one of my Hornets back into the cordon and consequently lost it in his Turn 2 Scion drop. I think the loss of those shots was felt supremely over the next four turns despite being an understated unit – especially as I struggled to clear his 5++ Scions with Draigo and Celestine closing in. If I had to lose a championship game, I’m glad it was to Nick and definitely, and I mean definitely, not Cyle and his pre-nerf Iron Hands.

Better Luck Next Time, Boon.

Dammit, Boon we were all rooting for ya. Still, 2nd’s not too bad, and he’s bound to take a GT at some point this year. If you have any questions for the crew or feedback you’d like to give, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.