Over the holiday weekend I managed to get the first 2 of 3 planned practice games in with my Troopzilla list in preparation for the ‘Ard Boyz tournament on Saturday. I would have liked to get more in, but real life has been calling and my fiancé will kick my ass if I don’t answer (we all need a good ass-kicking from time to time).

On Friday morning, Charlie brought his boards over to my apartment and we squared off against each other in the Drawn and Quartered mission slated for game 3 of the upcoming tournament. The scenario is a modified version of Capture and Control using Spearhead deployment and kill points as a secondary objective to determine the extent of victory (massacre/major/minor). I can’t help but think that the title of the scenario is a good-humored jab at the writers of Capture and Control, which is frequently referred to as the “draw” mission. The modifications are great though, and it is hands-down my favorite of the first round.

I played my Troopzilla list with some slight modifications, swapping out extra armor and heavy flamers for twin-linked lascannons on both Chaos Dreadnoughts and trimming some fat from the CSM units.

Charlie’s army used the Space Marine codex as its primary, but made heavy use of Daemonhunters allies. He was rocking the following list (roughly):

Grand Master – Psychic hood, psycannon

Chaplain

5 Grey Knight Terminators (retinue) – Incinerator (x2?)

10 Grey Knights – Psycannon x2

10 Grey Knights – Psycannon x2

10 Tactical Space Marines – Lascannon, meltagun, Rhino

10 Tactical Space Marines – Lascannon, meltagun, Rhino

3 Attack Bikes (one squad) – Multimelta x3

Land Raider

Land Raider Redeemer

Land Raider Redeemer

I don’t have pictures of the game, so instead I’ll just cherry-pick some of the important parts in order to highlight the worthwhile tactics.

Deployment

I won the roll and chose to go second, with the intention of attempting to steal the initiative (which I failed to do).

My army has no fast elements apart from the bikes, and they’re just suiciding meltaguns so I don’t expect them to survive past turn 3. Because of my speed (or lack thereof), I need to commit my units early on and in response to what my opponent places. This was especially important for this game because S6 Grey Knight Terminators + Grand Master have no way of dealing with AV12 walkers. By allowing him to go first I risked eating 4 lascannons plus whatever the Redeemers could throw at me, but I needed to know where those GKT’s were going before I set down my Dreads and Defilers.

Charlie spaced out his LRs evenly with the standard variant in the center, set further back. The LRR with GKT’s was on my left while the other LRR with standard GK’s was on the far right. Noting this deployment, I set up all 5 walkers opposing the GKT LRR, with the intention of rushing it and then making the Grand Master + expensive retinue useless. I also stuck a unit of Plague Marines + Sorcerer and Chaos Space Marines on this flank to secure the objective. The Berserkers and everything else went on the right so they could overwhelm his outnumbered forces and at least contest the second objective through prolonged MEQ combat.

The Game (briefly)

Charlie’s first turn of shooting was uneventful, save for exploding a single Defiler. He advanced both Redeemers and moved the bikes up 12″, out of LOS (turbo-boosting would have required an 18″ move, which would have taken him right into Defiler charge range).

I opened my turn with what was probably my smartest play of the entire game. I moved one of my bike squads up 12″ directly towards his Attack Bikes and then managed to get a charge off on them around the corner of some terrain. Charlie had expected me to go after the LRR since the unit had 2 meltaguns, but I knew that neutralizing the bikes would convey a much larger advantage.

From the start of the game, I knew the bikes would be a pain in the ass. S8, AP1, 24″ range means they don’t even need the 2D6 penetration to reliably kill 1 vehicle per turn, and there’s no way I’ll be able to charge them. Charlie is an excellent player, so I knew he’d be smart enough to keep them on the flank and force me to dedicate units to killing them, which would reduce the amount of support I could lend to the real action. By tying them up I could extend the movement of my walkers via assault moves and prevent myself from being shot. Better yet, Charlie couldn’t do anything about it without letting out his full GM+retinue to deal with the threat, which I would then slaughter with Defilers and Dreadnoughts.

On Turn 2 Charlie decided it was time to get the hell out of dodge, so he took his LRR over to assist the other LRR, which was about to get hit with a whole lot of melta. Shooting was fairly ineffective again, with a few stun/shaken results against Defilers and Rhinos alike. I then popped his LRR, lashed the GKs inside, then killed a bunch with a battlecannon shot. The unit went to ground, but still took heavy losses.

Charlie retaliated by bringing his GM+retinue to bear on my Chaos Space Marines and bikers who had taken out the LRR. He easily dispatched both units, then took a counter-charge from both units of Berserkers. The Chaplain+GKs joined the fray soon after, but I was ultimately victorious, leaving me with about 7 Berserkers left (in 2 different units).

During this time Charlie’s other GKs mounted up in the LR (they had been deployed on foot to shoot their psycannons at Rhino) and moved toward my left objective, with my Defilers, CSM’s, and PM’s waiting. His Rhinos remained in the backfield just firing lascannons, which was a serious blunder. Had they moved up and supported his GKs they might have been able to level the playing field against the exposed Berserkers.

We had to end the game a little early due to a prior engagement of mine, but the outcome was pretty clear by the end of Turn 5 and my opponent conceded defeat. We were both playing these lists for the first time, and it was a well-played game overall.

Charlie is easily one of the best players in our club. His only weakness is perhaps confidence in his abilities, which probably stems from his lack of tournament experience. Fortunately, our club has some very capable players, so he’s a lot better prepared than he thinks. While I think previous iterations of his list were superior, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Charlie placing in the top 3 on game day by virtue of his tactical acumen.