I played a tournament today and did reasonably well. I won all 3 games, but placed 4th when victory points were tallied. Overall I felt like Alaitoc and my list were pretty well suited for the job, and I learned a couple of key lessons as far as claiming and holding objectives in 8th that will help me do better next time. The list I ran was a follows:
Battalion 1
HQ
• Warlord – Autarch with Star Glaive, Plasma Grenades, Reaper Launcher, Force Shield, Mandiblaster, Shiftshroud of Alainsar (Legendary Wargear), Mark of the Incomparable Hunter (Warlord Trait) – 99
• Stock Farseer (Witchblade, Shuriken Pistol, Doom, Fortune) - 100
Troops
• 10 Dire Avengers, including exarch with extra shuriken catapult – 124
• 9 Dire Avengers, including exarch with extra shuriken catapult - 112
• 9 Dire Avengers, including exarch with extra shuriken catapult - 112
Fast Attack
• 5 Swooping Hawks, including exarch with hawk’s talon – 68
Heavy Support
• 10 Dark Reapers, including exarch with tempest launcher – 275
Battalion 2
HQ
• Illic Nightspear – 80
• Stock Warlock (Witchblade, Shuriken Pistol, Protect / Jinx) – 35
Troops
• 10 Dire Avengers, including exarch with extra shuriken catapult - 124
• 5 Rangers – 60
• 5 Rangers – 60
Total: 1,249
Command Points: 9 (3 Battle Forged, 3 Battalion 1, 3 Battalion 2)
Game 1
All Primaris Marines with 3 intercessor units, 2 full hellblaster units, a captain, ancient, & lieutenant. He got first turn.
Immediately the hellblasters took a heavy toll on an exposed unit of dire avengers. This was fine, as it meant they weren't shooting at dark reapers. Some intercessors moved up and shot a couple more dire avengers, and his turn was over. I responded by using the dark reapers and autarch to kill 8 hellblasters while the exarch killed off his 5 scouts. He should have shot at the dark reapers when he had the chance... I attempted to kill his lietenant, but couldn't finish him. Swooping hawks also dropped in a knocked out an intercessor and my turn ended. It was at this point I learned that I needed to be within 3" and not 6" of an objective to claim it (I'm still new to 8th) and missed out on 2 easy victory points.
Intercessors moved up and wiped out a dire avenger squad, hellblasters killed 2 rangers. He didn't bother to target the fortuned, protected, lighting fast reactions buffed dark reapers in cover, but that didn't really bother me. Dark reapers killed most of an intercessor squad in return, and the remaining models fled. Rangers and Illic knock out the lieutenant, and Illic one-shots the ancient. Farseer doomed his captain and about 50 shots from the remaining dire avengers took him down.
At that point we had to call the game because of time. I felt like I could have tabled him at this point, as all he had left was 10 intercessors and 10 hellblasters that only had range on 3 rangers, while I had all but about 15 dire avengers and 2 rangers remaining. I fixed my error on objectives, and managed to claim a 1 point victory.
Game 2
Astra Militarum / Grey Knights
I successfully siezed initiative and popped a basilisk with the reapers. The GK's were all in deep strike so there were no other good targets for them. Illic and the warlord combined to kill his company commander, and the rangers killed nothing. Swooping hawks came in, grabbed an objective, and shot 6 of a 10 man guard unit. They fled.
He replied by deep striking his warlord (a nemesis dreadknight character of some sort), but screwed up by doing it in view of the reapers. They knocked off 9 wounds before he acted using forewarned. Paladins also came in within 9" of 3 different DA units, ignoring field craft and doing serious rapid fire damage. I passed all the morale checks though, so it was ok. Dreadknight charged a DA unit successfully, but they took a wound off on overwatch. He killed 4, but I had deployed them in a line as a screen, and he had charged in that same direction, so I took my casualties and managed to escape combat.
Turn 2, 5 rangers took the last 2 wounds from the warlord, dark reapers killed a paladin unit, and the remaining dire avengers killed all the guardsmen in range of their guns (about 12). I sniped his other company commander with Illic and the remaining 5 rangers while the hawks grenaded the paladins and shot at them, killing.
The paladins charged some dire avengers and swooping hawks, the latter of which survived with the exarch remaining (lighting fast reactions). He passed his morale, which gave me linebreaker later. Remaining basilisk killed a few dire avengers, but not enough to send them running.
At this point the game ended due to time. He still had a ton of guardsmen on the board, but only 4 paladins and a basilisk. I think I could have finished them off with my unharmed reapers and rangers given enough time, as none but that basilisk had range.
Game 3
Biel Tan. This guy had 2 wave serpents loaded with Asurmen and dire avengers. He also had 2 farseers, some fire dragons, and some striking scorpions. I got first turn and the reapers killed a doomed wave serpent containing Asurmen. He shouldn't have deployed that close to the farseer. Shot up the dire avengers pretty well with the swooping hawks (3 or 4 dead) while Illic and the rangers did nothing to Asurmen.
He drops the fire dragons from the webway, who later kill some dire avengers. He also plops his scorpions out in the open in full view of the reapers. This was unwise, as after forewarned and morale, only the exarch would remain. He tried to charge and failed. Remaining wave serpent had dropped its 10 dire avengers to kill the swooping hawks (they did) while his 3 characters all hid out of LOS.
My turn, dire avengers kill the scorpion exarch, then charge the fire dragons behind him, losing 1 to overwatch and killing 2. Because it was troops v. elites, the objective they were fighting over was mine. Remaining wave serpent loses 6 wounds to reapers after being doomed, then 3 more to dire avengers rolling 6's.
Asurmen and the 2 farseers come out to try and kill some dire avengers off an objective. I lose 3 or 4 to smite, but none to asurmen's shooting. They pass morale and he didn't make his charge roll on any of them (they were all 10+ inches out). Fire dragons fall back, while the remaining dire avengers do shoot one of my damaged squads off an objective.
Round 3 begins with me having about a dozen dire avengers left, but everything else is healthy. I finish the wave serpent with the reapers, doom and jinx asurmen to kill him with the a few avengers + rangers + illic + warlord, while the reapers exarch kills 7 dire avengers in a nasty 11 shot volley (benefiting from runes of witnessing). They end up running, and while the remaining fire dragons get finished off by 3 dire avengers and an exarch.
His turn doesn't do much. His farseers hide behind a wall.
Given another turn or 2, I could have tabled him, but time ran out. This was due more to his decisions and list build than anything brilliant that I did. It was my largest margin of victory of the day.
Thoughts
I never lost a single dark reaper. For the most part, people didn't even try to kill them, as I was keeping them under the influence of fortune, protect, cover, and lightning fast reactions. I was honestly hoping people would target them more, because with this combo they were well equipped to be ranged tanks.
This list murdered characters. Between 10 rangers, Illic, and my warlord, I had no problem knocking them down and neutralizing their buffs.
Dire avengers are frustratingly difficult to keep alive. They were by far the most targetd unit, and always the bulk of my casualties (them and the swooping hawks, which suffered 14 casualties during 3 games).
Psychic tests are much harder to pass than they were in 5th (the last time I played any tournaments). As far as I can tell, we don't have much to help this (runes help, and seer council is fine, but it costs CP).
All that said, and if you've read all this thus far, does anyone have any suggestions or tweaks for how to improve this list or play it more effectively? Did I overkill the reaper buffs or were my opponents just foolish to ignore them? Any thoughts on keeping dire avengers from getting pwned while they grab an objective out in the open?
