Road to LVO: Terrain and Testing

Vegas looms ever closer and the good news is that I am extremely close to finished hobby-wise. Other than attaching a few already painted gun-swaps and sticking some adhesive gems to base rims for squad markings the only things I have left to do are optional – the army is in a usable state and the few hours I’ll be able to spare this weekend should tie everything off.

With that in mind, my thoughts have finally started to turn towards the actual games, and there’s been two bits of news on that front. First of all, Frontline Gaming have made an important announcement about terrain at the event and secondly thanks to my friend Doug very kindly stepping up at short notice, I got a practice game in pre-submission to make sure that my list wasn’t going to be a complete disaster. We’ll talk about the terrain announcement first, and then run down my practice game and whether it led to any drastic list changes.

Terrain

Shortly after I finished my practice game (doh) Frontline Gaming put up an article outlining a big change in this year’s LVO. For the top 100 tables, (so probably the top quarter-ish of the field allowing for attrition) they’re providing a roughly consistent set of terrain and fixed layouts. Fixed terrain isn’t unusual in the tournament world, but what’s a bit different is that rather than a single layout, they’ve designed a different one for each of the six deployment maps, with players re-setting the terrain according to helpful handouts that will be on the covered tables.

As far as details and measurements go, the information given is that the wall-like pieces are counting as hills (although remember “if it fits it sits” will be in effect) and are about 4″ high and 10-14″ long. The area pieces with the fallen pillars etc. are counting as area terrain that only provides cover (no charge modification), and it wasn’t quite clear if that applies to the ruins as well.

My initial hot take on the announcement is extremely positive. I’m a big fan of fixed terrain layouts, and I think the idea of experimenting with different ones for different deployment maps is definitely interesting. Entirely selfishly, as long as I can get into the X-0 bracket it’s going to be a huge help for doing the event write up as well. Also, much to the delight of me and all of my fellow euro-trash, the layout shows that there are going to be no magic boxes in the top games, which is a rather wonderful later Christmas present.

I’m a bit less of a fan of when the announcement was made. As we’ll discuss in a second, the maps have a big tactical impact, and thus announcing it only 2 days before the cut-off for list submission seems a bit harsh. Entirely co-incidentally I think the army I’ve ended up on is heavily favoured by the terrain, so it doesn’t hit me too hard, but some people are going to feel a bit dunked on – I’d certainly have ended up in a bit of a panic if I’d still been on the Fire Prism list.. This must have been in the works for a while, and even an extra week’s notice would have helped a lot to give people time to plan and adapt – and hard working content providers to produce hot takes in time to actually help with list design.

I think this matters so much because of just how good these maps are for certain types of unit. Notably, armies with a low-ish footprint and fast assault elements get a huge boost because of how safely and aggressively the big L-blocks let them deploy on five out of six of the maps. Unlike a lot of “standard” setups, in every deployment except Dawn of War (which looks a bit more like setups seen in other events), the largest line of sight blocking pieces on the map are positioned in each player’s deployment zone, near or on the deployment line. A lot of the powerful melee options that are popular in the metagame can move through the walls of the L-blocks (either via FLY or being INFANTRY) and have access to either pre-game or double move effects, and on most of these maps they can plausibly deploy completely hidden and still comfortably make a turn one charge if they go first.

Melee units aiming for a turn one charge are the biggest winners, but honestly any low-drop army that wants to be mobile should be delighted by this. Even when my army is putting all the bikers in deep strike, the fact that I can probably fit everything else I have behind those L-blocks is a massive deal, and means I can afford to put a lot more armies on the first turn than I would be able to otherwise, and there will be vastly more games where I can afford to start at least the Skyweavers in play. Obviously plenty of top armies are far from helpless even if they can’t see you, but even the nightmarish indirect-fire options that Marines pack struggle to shift Wave Serpents in cover – there’s a world of difference for armies similar to mine to being shot at by “a bunch of Whirlwinds” and “a bunch of Whirlwinds and two lascannon dreads”.

So who are the big winners and losers? I think it’s something like this:

Winners

• Footslogging/flying biker melee bombs – Shining Spears, Skyweavers, Centurions, Possessed, Sanguinary Guard, Krakenstealers.
• Indirect fire – Whirlwinds, Thunderfires, Night Spinners, Wyverns
• Plane-based Marine lists.
• Fast Lists

Losers

• Vehicle/Monster/Non-FLY biker melee options – Knights, Lords Discordant
• Low-mobility shooting that needs LOS – Knights, Tank Commanders, Dreadnoughts, Fire Prisms (kinda)
• Stalker bolt rifle spam Marine lists
• Slower lists

I think armies that apply deep strike pressure such as GSC and Orks are probably helped a bit, but I’m withholding judgement a little – I think the wall-like hills could potentially turn out to be a big problem for them, giving savvy opponents a way to screen out charges on some of the maps, or at least funnel the forces into a killzone.

If your army is using some of the stuff on the “losers” list there then I’d recommend having a good think about how you’re going to deal with this terrain – don’t just assume it’ll be alright, as you’re going to find yourself in a lot of trouble. It’s also probably worth going over past articles on some helpful website and familiarising yourself with the options available to the big meta nasties for getting in your face. Our reviews of Raven Guard, Faith and Fury and Blood Angels would be worth a look, along with our Start Competing guides for Craftworlds, Harlequins and Tyranids.

I’m generally very keen on a setup that reduces the number of games where one player gets blown straight off the board (and god knows that happens enough in the current meta), but I think putting the LOS-blockers in such a good aggressive spot in 5/6 maps might have swung the pendulum too far the other way. Going for a half-and-half split of having the L-pieces in and out of deployment zones would have been my preference.

Outside of the L-blocks, there is one wild-card here for the rest of the terrain – what does “about four inches” actually mean (minds out of the gutter you at the back)? Quite a few notable units hover on the edge of this height, especially in factions with flying units, so it could make a surprising amount of difference if the hills turned out to be more like 3.5″ or, alternatively, crept up towards five.

As an example, consider the following Skyweaver:

I have the sinking sense that these assholes and their sticky up spear are going to cost me at least one game – and hiding them behind the 4″ walls could prove very fraught if they turn out to be even slightly short.

On the other hand, some armies stay under this height surprisingly consistently:

The fact that Whirlwinds in particular (along with Thunderfires) can hide behind the walls with ease is going to give Marine players quite a few options as to where to deploy them, although at least they won’t be in cover against anything that does manage to draw a line on them.

There’s probably more that could be said about the terrain, but we’ve probably hit the most important beats at this point, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays on the table. If you want a more in-depth analysis, including suggested deployment locations, Nick Nanavati did a write-up over on the Art of War.

Testing

By the end of last week I was in a bit of a panic about my updated list – I was pretty sure it was good, but worried that it would turn out to be somehow unplayable on the table. Luckily, when I sent a desperate message to Doug, he stepped right up to the plate and came round packing a full set of LGT terrain and a nasty Eldar list to throw down with.

Doug's list - Click to Expand

This is modelled off Colin Sherman’s style of combined arms list, and while some of the elements are a little weak against Marine artillery, it should provide a decent trial by fire for my army, as it has powerful counters to what I’m doing. As a reminder, this is the list I’d landed on last time:

My list - Click to Expand

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ PLAYER: James Grover
+ REPORTED ARMY FACTION: Aeldari
+ TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 14
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 2000
+ POWER LEVEL: 112
+ ARMY FACTIONS USED: Aeldari, Asuryani, Harlequins, Biel Tan, Dreaming Shadow
+ TOTAL REINFORCEMENT POINTS: 0
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

== Battalion Detachment == Asuryani, Biel Tan [ 60PL, 1032pts] 5 CP

HQ: Warlock Skyrunner (60), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2),  Witchblade (0), Warlord [4PL] [62pts]
HQ: Farseer (110), Witchblade (0) [6PL] [110pts]

TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [55pts]

FA: 9 Shining Spears (180), 9 Twin Shuriken Catapults (18), 8 Laser Lances (64), Star lance (10), Exarch Power Skilled Rider [14PL] [272pts]

DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2) [9PL] [139pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2) [9PL] [139pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2) [9PL] [139pts]

== Battalion Detachment == Asuryani, Biel Tan [ 21PL, 394pts] 5 CP

HQ: Asurmen (150) [9PL] [150pts]
HQ: 2 Warlock Conclave (70), 2 Witchblades (0) [3PL] [70pts]

TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]

== Vanguard Detachment == Harlequins, Dreaming Shadow [ 31PL, 574pts] 1 CP

HQ: Shadowseer (110), Shuriken Pistol (0) [7PL] [110pts]

EL: Solitaire (84), Harlequin’s Kiss (7), Harlequin’s Caress (7) [5PL] [98pts]
EL: Death Jester (45) [3PL] [45pts]
EL: Death Jester (45) [3PL] [45pts]

FA: 6 Skyweavers (150), 6 Haywire Cannons (90), 6 Zephyrglaives (36) [13PL] [276pts]

We set up the table, rolled up ITC mission 5, Precious Cargo and Vanguard Strike then got to it.

Doug has kindly sent me his write up of the game, so you can see how it played out from both sides!

My Plan

The good news in this game is that my army is much more mobile than Doug’s, so if I can neuter his Wave Serpents and infantry then I can hopefully rack up a decent number of objective points. If I can get my melee elements into his castle it’s also going to be game over for him.

The bad news is that getting to that point might prove a challenge. Several of his threats line up extremely well against mine, and the Reapers’ ability to intercept Deep Striking Spears with Forewarned, before I can buff them up no less, is a big problem. Adding to that is that I can’t really just deploy them on the board either – between the planes and the Night Spinners he can put a massive amount of damage onto anything that isn’t a Wave Serpent with the first turn.

Because of that, they definitely have to go into Webway Strike (along with the Skyweavers), and what I think I need to do is put them onto the board relatively early to go after a plane that’s away from the rest of his army and out of Reaper range, then rely on psychic defences and Quicken to keep them alive and get them into the fight.

The rest of the army wants to deploy somewhere the Reapers can’t a good bead, then leapfrog into one of the centre L blocks turn one, planning to do a big push turn 2. In this matchup I have to accept that he’s getting the better of the first turn, and expect to make up the points later on.

Secondary wise, I want to dominate the board centre with Dire Avengers and Wave Serpents, so Recon should be simple. Big Game Hunter is a freebie, but I decided to go with Pick your Poison on the Bike Characters, Swooping Hawks and one Serpent rather than committing to killing every last one of his vehicles by taking Marked for Death as well.

My Secondaries

• Big Game Hunter
• Recon
• Pick Your Poison (bike characters, Hawks, Serpent)

Doug’s Plan

Going into the game I had to kill or neuter the bikes and quickly. To quote other articles – they were on my critical path. So Marked For Death or Gangbusters on the Harlequins?  I can’t max Gangbusters against Wings. Turn 1 I’m likely only shooting Serpents so I might be able to pick up an additional point early with the former, and if I win the game I’m likely to get more points from MFD as I can probably kill the final Serpent. If I lose the game then I’m not maxing either way.

Secondary 2 – Recon or Engineers? My list is based on killing stuff then deepstriking in Engineers on T2/3 – plus it’s better practice for me to think about (this is a mistake). I think Wings will be focusing on removing planes as he has a lot of characters I want to kill, so I should be able to score this while he’s distracted.

Secondary 3 – Butcher’s Bill – realistically I need to kill 1 big unit a turn, and there’s a lot of random stuff running around to pick up the additional points.

MFD/Engineers/Butcher’s Bill it is.

Doug’s Secondaries

• Marked for Death
• Engineers
• Butcher’s Bill

Deployment

Me

This list sure doesn’t have much stuff on board huh? Pretty simple here – two Serpents forward and touching the ruin for cover from the Night Spinner, and the third providing a protective shield that guarantees the characters (in the ruin) don’t get planed if Doug goes all in and high-rolls.

Doug

Simple and straightforward – limit deepstrike options as much as feasibly possible. Castle up. Put Reapers where they can see a lot of the board on T2 for an intercept. Made a huge mistake and left my Engineers in reserve. Wings can’t kill them early in his list. No real reason to do it except habit.

We were playing with the LGT terrain set and the LVO maps were going to end up being posted a few hours after the game. Allowing me to get one of the big L’s in my zone and creating a death zone in the middle would have been huge for me.

Turn 1

Me

Doug won the roll off, and because I’d elected to only put Wave Serpents and characters bubbled by Wave Serpents on the board he gave me the first turn. All I could really do with it was move up into the central ruins as planned, leaving a Death Jester back on my home objective. I knew he could fly a plane over to kill it, but there was a small chance of him missing, and it would bait a plane out of position for my Spears to drop into. He duly flew up and killed the Death Jester, but did minimal other damage as other than that all he got to do was plink some wounds off Serpents with Night Spinners.

Doug

Wings moved forwards meaning I wasn’t killing a Serpent (see comments about the terrain & map) but he had only left a Death Jester on his home objective. Easy opportunity to pick up a lead early and hopefully leave the Spears in a bad position if they commit to kill my plane in the backfield. Yay first blood! Oh wait, wrong format…

I failed to kill the Wave Serpent which isn’t unexpected but does change some of my thinking on MFD being the right choice as I might not get much opportunity to get at them again.

Primary Score

1-4

Turn 2

Me

Time to kill stuff. The Spears dropped in the back-field, with the Shadowseer also doubling back to ensure I held the objective even if they failed their charge, as I couldn’t afford to leak another turn of hold more, given that it’s the Primary I should be aiming for. This turned out to be a mistake in the long run, and I think this might have been a situation to accept that if I missed the 5″ charge it was probably game over, and assume it was going to work. Meanwhile, the Skyweavers came in out of sight of the Reapers, and 4/6 Avengers squads plus Asurmen popped into the board centre to lock up Recon and draw a bead on a Wave Serpent. I slammed Doom into that one and put all the buffs onto the Spears, and the good times started – the Skyweavers blew a Wave Serpent clean up with their haywire (which helpfully tagged some wounds onto a nearby plane), while the Doomed Serpent died in a hail of Shurikens. Finally, the Spears made their charge, brutally murdered the plane, then bubbled the Shadowseer.

Doug’s turn was then pretty underwhelming – only three Skyweavers died to a decent amount of shooting (although a fourth ran as I rolled a six for morale). He did pick up a good number of Dire Avengers, with Asurman’s invulnerable save doing a fat lot of nothing, but I felt pretty good coming out of this turn.

Doug

Wings killed both my serpents through some (un)lucky haywire and Doom– annoying and limits my ability to contest objectives and guarantees hold more beyond this or maybe next turn. Skyweavers come in out of LoS of the Reapers (unsurprisingly) but pretty far back as planned. Spears kill my plane in Wings’ deployment zone leaving them not a threat on T3. Unhappy about losing both of the Serpents, but plan seems to be going well.

Second huge mistake – I’d taken Engineers and first blindly deepstruck, THEN forgot to bring them in to start scoring on T2 and then on T3 – Wings list wasn’t a threat to them that early. Should have been racking up the points or taking Recon.

Shooting phase – 2 planes and 3 Spinners go into the Harlequin bikers, leaving 2 alive. Not unreasonable. Shame the Reapers weren’t doing much except providing a threat. They pick up some Avengers scoring BB but the 4++ from Asurmen means Wings gets kill more.

Primary Score

4-6

Turn 3

Me

Still having a couple of Harlequins was a bit of a bonus, as it allowed them to zoon down on the right flank to try and prise his objective grabbers off that corner’s objective and wrap up Hold More for good. Unfortunately, elsewhere a poor advance roll and a failed cast of Quicken on my Spears left me a bit out of position. I had to settle for pushing my Dire Avenger bubble (re-inforced with the remaining two units) further up the board and setting up my Solitaire to get into his castle next turn. I did also murder a Night Spinner with Doom-powered Shurikens.

Sadly, the Skyweavers didn’t quite manage to take down all the Avengers in the corner, allowing him to tie Hold for another turn. At least his shooting was relatively lacklustre – the Seer Council obviously died a death, but the other losses I suffered (mostly the Skyweavers) were manageable. Having the Skyweavers where they were did also prevent him from bringing stuff in in that corner, which could have been a problem.

Doug

Wings fails to kill all the Avengers which is nice! They give me a nice extra hold and stop Wings from holding more. I dispel Protect which is pretty nice. Hopefully I can hurt the Spears!

Engineers (finally) come in – with all the mistakes so far, I make another one. Rather than spreading them out and forcing the Spears to make decisions I blindly drop them into my castle. To compound all of that, the Hawks shoot Avengers and fail miserably killing one or two.

I make another mistake and forget to pivot a plane that moves up to kill Wings’ Conclave – making this move is correct as it’s the Quicken and it prevents the Spears being a threat, but forgetting to pivot means that next turn it’s not helping kill the Spears.

Shooting finishes off the Harlequin bikers, and 2 whole Night Spinners just manage to kill the Shining Spear Exarch. This could have gone better, but I at least use some Reapers to pick up Butcher’s Bill and Kill More.

Primary Score

6-9

Turn 4

Me

I’m in a bad spot on the primary so I need to prioritise a big turn here, and ideally take out both of his Engineers to cap his secondary scoring. Luckily my Solitaire is in position, and I’ve got lots of Avengers and my Curtainfall Death Jester lined up to make a mess of his Hawks. The Hawks die to shooting, while the Spears zoom round to take his remaining infantry off the corner objective, and get in a position where he must focus everything on depleting them next turn. Doom and Shurikens put the hurting on another Night Spinner, while the Blitzed Solitaire is able to take out the whole Ranger squad and tag the Dark Reapers, forcing him to drain most of his remaining CP to get some shooting in. My backfield Wave Serpents also put a few wounds on his roving plane, although the Shadowseer treacherously fails to Twilight Pathway close enough to Smite/Grenade it.

His response was mediocre all around – he had to put everything he had into the Spears to try and stop them taking over the game, and with their defensive buffs up and Biel Tan leadership didn’t manage to get all of the way through. He did just about manage to kill my Solitaire, as the only upside for him, but this turn was extremely good for me.

Doug

This is where all the mistakes earlier really start counting. The Solitaire kills both sets of Engineers and tags the Reapers meaning I’m basically down a secondary. One of my planes isn’t there to help killing stuff. Etc etc.

I’m pretty stuck for options. Wings has played it well burning my CP to get the Reapers to try and kill the Spears. However, Doom fails, Fortune fails and Jinx/Protect would have been the better choice. I am forced to shoot at the Spears anyhow, leaving 3 alive. This is a bad turn but mostly due to earlier mistakes.

Primary Score

10-11

Turn 5

Me

Doug is still on way more points than I’d like, so I need to put the boot in.

I do.

Doom and Shurikens picks up a Night Spinner, while the remaining three Spears are able to line up a charge on his Crimson. Over on the other side of the board, the Shadowseer finally does something, chucking enough mortals into the Crimson Hunter that I’m able to finish it off with Shurikens.

In the charge phase, Asurmen gets into the Reapers and kills a mighty seven thanks to the mortals from his sword, while the Wave Serpent tanks the overwatch from a Crimson to bring the Spears in safely, finishing it off. The only real issue is that it then explodes, taking out enough of my models to actually let him keep a foothold in the game. Asurmen takes the bonus.

With all my stuff weakened, he hits back pretty well, taking out a good number of models and leaving me with only a few units up front and some Serpents bouncing around, and nicking Kill More.

Doug

In Wings’ turn, I fail two out of three 2+ cover saves and my final plane dies in a spot it’s not supposed to be in. Oops. I fail many more 3+ saves and lose a Night Spinner. Asurmen charges the Reapers and kills them all through morale and mortal wounds, and the Spears polish off the last plane. Not hugely surprising, though some different luck could have fixed that.

I get my characters into the thick of it (trying to get away from Asurmen mostly) and actually end up with a pretty decent turn, killing off all the Avengers, Wings’ Warlock and a Wave Serpent.

Primary Score

14-13

Turn 6

Me

I have two goals here – ensure I score the bonus and pick up his two Bike characters to complete my secondaries. Part one goes well, with my Farseer flying over to join a Serpent and nick the point, but despite getting Doomed the Warlock shrugs off everything I throw at him in the shooting phase, forcing me to finish the job with Asurmen in melee, and leaving the Farseer frustratingly alive. He is able to capitalise on this by killing two units to take kill more, and we wrap things up.

Doug

Legendary saves on my warlock means Wings is down one on Pick Your Poison. I mess up slightly (again) and kill the final Serpent but not the Farseer as I don’t put mine where I can shoot him, instead, hiding on the objective. Silly as this is the last game turn but doesn’t change anything on the overall score.

Primary Score

18-16

Final Score

Primary: 18-16

Secondary: 11-8

Total: 29-24

Thoughts

Me

A close game there – I think I would probably have pulled out more points in the last few turn without the plane explosion, but equally if we played it again Doug would definitely rack up a bigger secondary total.

The good news is that the list clearly works – it’s way more terrifying to play than the combined arms lists I’m used to but the power level is there, and I think this matchup was a challenging one to test it in. I do think Doug’s correct that in this particular matchup the Vanguard Strike LVO layout wouldn’t have helped me – his firepower is pretty much entirely happy operating at extreme range, and it would have taken me longer to get my Dire Avengers into position. Equally, I’d have had an easier time controlling the corner objectives, so might not have bled as many primary points early. If only the announcement had been 6 hours earlier we could have found out!

In general, pretty much every unit performed as I’d hoped, and the list operated roughly as I expected (and hoped), with just a few tweaks to it and some learning points coming out. The good news though was that I finished the game confident that I could lock the army in with only minor changes and didn’t need to do any last minute panic building!

Doug

Overall my game plan worked and was good. I’m definitely better playing around target priority and killing stuff than I am with shenanigans and finesse. No particular changes to the list as it stands. Though I am still toying with a Wraithlord instead of one of the Serpents.

Definitely need to play more ITC. I’m familiar with it, but not practiced, which really came across this game. If I’d maxed my Engineers or taken Recon (which was probably the right choice) the game would have been very different. 

Well-deserved win from Wings, who from my view didn’t make nearly so many mistakes.

List Update

Thanks again to Doug for the great game and contributing to the write up – seeing both sides of a game is always more interesting (and it’s mildly hilarious to me that for the first two turns both of us were thinking “aha, yes, just as planned”).

As outlined, changes coming from it were minimal. The main things were:

• Warlock Conclave is too cute. Swapping to a single regular Warlock might make me a little weaker to Headhunter, but too many armies just delete the Conclave and take Butcher’s Bill.
• I found once battle was joined that Serpents needed to swap to objective-holding duty. With the points I’ve freed up from the Warlock change, I’ve thus upgraded all their underslung guns to shuriken cannons so they can contribute that little bit more at longer range. It also helps give the army more chance of spiking off something like an Infantry Squad for a kill if I’m forced to go first when I don’t want to.

That gives, as my final, locked in LVO list:

LVO 2020 - Click to Expand

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ PLAYER: James Grover
+ REPORTED ARMY FACTION: Aeldari
+ TOTAL COMMAND POINTS: 14
+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1999
+ POWER LEVEL: 111
+ ARMY FACTIONS USED: Aeldari, Asuryani, Harlequins, Biel Tan, Dreaming Shadow
+ TOTAL REINFORCEMENT POINTS: 0
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

== Battalion Detachment == Asuryani, Biel Tan [ 60PL, 1056pts] 5 CP

HQ: Warlock Skyrunner (60), Twin Shuriken Catapult (2),  Witchblade (0), Warlord [4PL] [62pts]
HQ: Farseer (110), Witchblade (0) [6PL] [110pts]

TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [55pts]

FA: 9 Shining Spears (180), 9 Twin Shuriken Catapults (18), 8 Laser Lances (64), Star lance (10), Exarch Power Skilled Rider [14PL] [272pts]

DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Shuriken Cannon (10) [9PL] [147pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Shuriken Cannon (10) [9PL] [147pts]
DT: Wave Serpent (120), Twin Shuriken Cannon (17), Shuriken Cannon (10) [9PL] [147pts]

== Battalion Detachment == Asuryani, Biel Tan [ 20PL, 369pts] 5 CP

HQ: Asurmen (150) [9PL] [150pts]
HQ: Warlock (45), Witchblade (0) [2PL] [45pts]

TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]
TR: 5 Dire Avengers (40), Exarch (0), 5 Avenger Shuriken catapults (15), Exarch Additional Avenger Shuriken Catapult (3), Exarch Power Bladestorm [3PL] [58pts]

== Vanguard Detachment == Harlequins, Dreaming Shadow [ 31PL, 574pts] 1 CP

HQ: Shadowseer (110), Shuriken Pistol (0) [7PL] [110pts]

EL: Solitaire (84), Harlequin’s Kiss (7), Harlequin’s Caress (7) [5PL] [98pts]
EL: Death Jester (45) [3PL] [45pts]
EL: Death Jester (45) [3PL] [45pts]

FA: 6 Skyweavers (150), 6 Haywire Cannons (90), 6 Zephyrglaives (36) [13PL] [276pts]

Wrap Up

Unless something dramatic happens, that’s probably it for the Road to LVO from me, and only the event itself remains! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these updates, and if you enjoy our articles and are at LVO please do come and say hello – I’ll have a nice obvious Goonhammer shirt on, and am always delighted to chat to readers. If you’re not at the event but still want to say hello, you can reach us at contact@goonhammer.com.