No rest for the servants of the Omnissiah – Naramyth is back with another tournament report, this time trying out a more combat-oriented AdMech build. Will Dragoons be even better now they have some buddies to zoom up the field with them? Let’s find out!
Introduction
Right after last week’s GT my fiancee was out of town for the weekend, the team wanted to get games in, and we had access to a store with some tables. So why not throw an RTT? Since I was organizing and running the event I didn’t want to win it, so I decided to do some experimenting and play a close combat Ad Mech list to try out some ideas I’ve had.
The List
Army List - Click to Expand Stygies VIII Battalion Dominus, Warlord, Eradication Ray, d6 swings relic, get CP back on 6s trait Enginseer 5 Rangers, 2x Arc Rifles 5 Rangers, 2x Arc Rifles 5 Rangers, 2x Arc Rifles 10x Fulgurite Priests 10x Fulgurite Priests 6x Dragoons Skorpius Disintegrator Skorpius Disintegrator Skorpius Disintegrator Skorpious Dunerider Skorpious Dunerider Terrax Drill Terrax Drill Stygies VIII Battalion Engineseer Engineseer 5 Rangers, 2x Plasma 5 Rangers 5 Rangers Operative Requisition Sanctioned
How It Works
It’s almost all melee pressure. The Dragoons and two Duneriders full of priests do their scout move to take the middle and pressure everything down. The assassin and drills go in reserve with all the special weapons and an Enginseer each to drop in for harassment and even more pressure, while the 10 naked Rangers hold the backfield and screen for the backbone shooting of the three Disintegrators. Certainly not the amount of shooting I am used to, and everything is really predicated on going first for those tasty first turn charges. However, going second might not be the end of the world with the army wide -1 to hit and cover save turn one. I’m sure I’ll smash a couple people if I go first, but eventually someone is going to go first against me and put me in the hurt locker.
Game 1: Eldar
My game one was against fellow Warhog Nick. But not Nick from last week. Listen, we have two Nick’s ok? He was also playing some silly stuff: namely a Lynx and a Scorpion from Forge World. The Lynx has a pretty gnarly 4d6 flamer and can act as a flier, while the Scorpion had an outrageous 4d6 shot, S12, AP-4, D3 gun.
The Opposition
A Scorpion, Lynx, 2 Night Spinners, 2 Crimson Hunter Exarchs, a Hemlock, and a Warlock
Mission and Deployment
Front Line Assault
ITC Mission 2
Assassin Pick
Callidus. He has 5 CP so every one he uses is precious. Also having an assassin to try to grab the Warlock will be key. The board had too many LOS issues for the Vindicare, and a Hemlock flying around who might hunt him down.
The Game
This mission has the deploy first go first deployment and I “won” the roll off. He sets the planes in the corners, his Spinners in the top right corner, and the Scorpion right on the point with the Lynx off to the right. I setup broadly, trying to hide my Disintegrators in my bottom right as far as I can to force the planes to come in deep into my zone, with my Dominus right in the middle so he can’t get sniped. Drills were off the table and the melee elements were right on the line ready to launch forward. Even if they don’t go first just being there should be enough of a threat to force them to be shot at while the Disintegrators work on his ground elements. The game plan is to just ignore the planes and boots on the ground him. I went for the seize…
…and got it! That was functionally lights out for him. The Dragoons and a set of priests made 4″ charges into the Scorpion and killed it, with the priests getting the buff. The second set of priests on my right side went forward to threaten a charge on his Night Spinners turn two and my shooting did very little. His go was pretty ineffective: he killed a couple of priests and blew up a Disintegrator, but put his Lynx into flight mode to not get charged. My turn two the drills came down and blew up the Lynx while the Dragoons and second set of priests charge his Spinners and Warlock and he is boots on the ground’d on the top of two.
Not much to say. The seize was brutal. We talked after the game and he realized he should have setup with the chance to get seized on, especially with the Scorpion’s 60″ or whatever range guns. He could have also used the flier bases in deployment to screen out all the charges that could have happened with my all in strat.
Match Score
36-4
Game 2: Tyranids/GSC
The Opposition
Freshly minted Warhog, Chris! His list isn’t in BCP so from memory: Jornungandr detachment with 20 Termagants, 4 sets of Rippers, a Malanthrope, 2 Neurothropes, 2 Exocrines, 2 Tyrannofexes with flamers, 6 Hive Guard , and then Genestealer Cult with a Primus, Patriarch, Acolyte Iconward, 20 Neophytes, and 4 rock saws in 15 Acolytes
Mission and Deployment
ITC Mission 4
Search and Destroy
Assassin Pick
Callidus. Bugs and GSC want to do some silly strats so making them cost more is good. Also she can go punk a Neurothope if things go well.
The Game
Another setup first/go first deployment and I “lost” the roll off. I setup my melee options right on the line, my tanks and Dominus far enough back where he probably won’t get them with the Hive Guard unless he puts them on the line, the drills and assassin off the table, and some Rangers screening my back line. He sets up two lines of gaunts to screen his big bugs, Neophytes on the wings, and all his shooting behind the lines of gaunts. He tries to seize and fails.
I scout up my Dragoons and priest rides. The priests stay in for a turn two charge. I shoot away the rear line of gaunts and chip away at the Hive Guard with my indirect shooting from the Disintegrators, killing one or two while doing nothing to the T-fexes with the disruptor missiles. The Dragoons charge the first line of gaunts, just exploding them, and piling into one of the T-fexes. On his turn he kills 3 Dragoons in shooting, and charges them with the Patriarch who kills the fourth and puts 5 wounds on the fifth. The Dragoons activate their Conquerer Imperative, and with the exploding hits on 4s kill the Patriarch.
On turn two, the priests and remaining Dragoons get into his lines while I use my deep strikers to zone out everything except the far irrelevant corners of the map. I proceed to kill with my shooting and combat, a Neurothrope, the Malanthrope, an Exocrine, and the Hive Guard, and touch the rest of his gunline. The saws come in, fail to kill the now empty Dunerider, and he shakes my hand on the top of 3.
Another “hey I went first” success story. His deployment was a bit aggressive. He should have pushed further into his corner to force a turn three charge before bad touching started to happen. This feels like a last year lesson: if you don’t have fly you have to be supremely careful about shooting units or they will be touched. Because sometimes you will pull some silly scout moving gimmick army.
Match score 37-5
Game 3: Dark Angels
The Opposition
My old roommate, and fellow Warhog Chase! He has caught the traitor Marine bug and wanted to put bigly Marines on the board. He was running all three Phobos HQs, 2×5 Intercessors, 15 Infiltrators, a squad of Eliminators, a couple Scout sniper squads, two squads of 6 bikes, a squad of 6 Black Knights, the plasma Speeder and a Callidus assassin.
Mission and Deployment
ITC Mission 3
Spearhead Assault
Assassin Pick
Callidus. Even with the deep strike bubbles she should be able to get in somewhere. CP stuff, and she can punk a character.
The Game
Same verse same as the first (and second). Melee units on the line, shooty stuff back far enough and behind a tall wall to hide from the bikes and Speeder, with my characters far enough back to not get sniped. He’s seen this trick before and measures out into his DZ to make a turn one charge impossible.
I win the roll off and take first turn. My stuff runs forward as far as possible and I focus fire everything into the Black Knights and get them off the table turn one for my first kill. He casts the half move spell and fails (even with a reroll) on the Dragoons. He shoots back at me with his whole army, going all in on the Speeder (rerolling number of shots, and buffing it with +1 damage) and doesn’t quite kill my left Dunerider with priests (including me foolishly rerolling to save it during shooting). He then charges and surrounds it with bikes but does not kill it after I make three 3+ saves to keep it and the priests inside alive. All those rerolls he made combined with the Callidus leaves him at 0 CP on the bottom of 1. I go, my priests bail out my other priests, the Dragoons get into his back lines killing his Engineers, and the assassin and drill comes in awkwardly around his 12″ no deep strike bubbles to do what they can. I kill some Eliminators, some Scouts, the bikes, the Speeder, and one squad of Intercessors. I foolishly don’t touch his second squad of bikes with the Dragoons, thinking they have fly (they don’t have fly and I have no idea why I thought they did). He goes and kills both squads of priests and threatens my Dominus with his assassin, but I interrupt against the assassin to keep him alive to stop her tagging my tanks (I did 3 wounds on overwatch when she came in, so there was a good chance I’d be able to kill her). On the top of three I’m lining up some cleanup charges with the assassin and Dragoons, while the drills maneuver around to start mopping up, and he shakes my hand.
He played perfectly, still lost. I played sloppy, and was never punished. His Tenebrous Curse would have been devastating to the Dragoon rush, and if the one squad of priests died in the Dunerider when he surrounded it, it would have been difficult to keep pushing since I would have been down a squad and stuck with the Dragoons at half movement. His snipers were dangerous and made me play around them, but they never really did any damage. The 12″ deep strike denial is honestly much better than I expected. I should have put the drills on the table when it was Hammer and Anvil.
Match score 36-9
Final score
3-0!
Well that’s embarrassing. Chase was the chosen one to keep me from winning my own event! The list certainly works well when you can always go first and Scouts/Nurglings don’t push you back. And while it was fun, there is a little voice in the back of my head that is saying “remember Eldar fliers, remember going second, remember it’s a shooting game”. I ran 4 Dragoons at Bugeater and I wasn’t impressed, but 6 felt pretty good. The staff priests are still super dangerous and are probably the better choice since they can get into buildings and through walls but they can feel underwhelming once they lose a few guys.
I was impressed with the Disintegrators even when they weren’t Mars with Cawl. However, to keep them operating and bring in Dunecrawlers/Breachers/bots means using Mars and I really want only one buffing anchor. Finally planes do still exist and hitting them on 4s (or worse) and only rerolling 1s is not the same.
Next time might see a set of priests and maybe a drill go away in favor of Dunecrawlers. However that requires the list, and specifically the Heavy Support slots, to be Mars, and I want a Stygies VIII detachment to throw the Dragoons up and to keep things being -1 to hit. If I don’t go Dragoons and just keep two squads of priests I can certainly stay Mars, and if I do that I want some heavy volume of fire out of specific units so Wrath of Mars can get used, and that might mean deep striking Infiltrators and/or Vanguard in rides as platforms for the strat. Round and round we go.
Next time: A weekend off, then a final RTT before the stretch to NOVA.
